BJP promises free power, K'taka facelift

Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday came out with its manifesto for the forthcoming elections in Karnataka.

If voted to power, the party promises to provide free power to farmers using pump sets up to 10HP, free education to women up to their final year degree, infrastructure development, a cyber café in every village and conversion of the state into steel, cement and IT/BT zones.

The manifesto, which was released by state BJP observer Arun Jaitley and chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa, seeks to sort the problem of regional imbalance and focus on the development of the entire state.

The salient features of the manifesto are:

• Poor to be classified into poor and extremely poor in the state. Extremely poor would be people with an income of Rs 30,000 and below per annum. Poor would be people with income between Rs 30,000 and Rs 60,000 per annum.
• Maturity value of the Bhagyalaxmi scheme to be enhanced from Rs 34,000 to Rs 1 lakh.
• Free power for those farmers using IP sets up to 10 HP
• Interest rate for farmers taking loan even from nationalized banks to be at 3 per cent. Difference amount to be borne by state government.
• Revolving fund of Rs 500 crore for agriculture support price to be set up.
• Divorced women, widows and physically handicapped to be given Rs 400 as pension per month.
• 15 lakh houses to be built in the next five years for the homeless.
• A cyber café to be set up in every village. A colour television will also be installed in every community centre in the state. A community hall to be built in case a village does not have one Rs 2 subsidy on milk.
• Land acquisition policy to be formulated.
• Free education for girls up to final year degree.
• Seed capital for self-help groups to be increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.
• Mobile phones to be provided to all Mahila Mandals and self-help groups.
• Food allowance in SC/ST hostels to be increased from Rs 500 to Rs 750.
• Double power production in the state and produce 10,000 MW power.
• Emphasise more on private investments.
• To set up an authority that will ensure better connectivity through out the state.
• Also to spend Rs 25 crore for better connectivity.
• Karnataka to be classified into three zones -- Bellary as Steel Zone, Gulbarga as Cement Zone and Bangalore/Mysore as IT/BT Zones.
• To develop Bangalore into a world class city. The Bangalore Mayor will be directly elected by the people.
• Steps will be taken to remove regional imbalance.
• Rs 1 million crore to be spent on infrastructure.