A technocrat and revolutionary PM who protected interests of all: DKS

Belagavi: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Friday hailed former Prime Minister Manmo-han Singh as a revolutionary technocrat who protected the interest of all sections of the society.

Addressing a condolence meeting at CPED grounds here, he said, “I will request the Higher Education Minister to set up an economic research studies centre at Bengaluru university. True tribute to him would be spread his contributions in economic reforms to the future generations.”

“Rather than mourning his death, it would be a good tribute to walk in the path laid out by him. Leaders from various parts of the country were here to reminisce the history of Gandhiji, but fate had other plans,” he said.

“We had shared a video conferencing link to Sonia Gandhi so that she could be part of the Gandhi Bharat programme. We wanted Manmohan Singh also to witness this pro-gramme. When we tried to contact him, we were told that he was unwell and had been admitted to AIIMS in Delhi. We were confident of him recovering well but he is not with us today,” he said.

“We were all set to hold Gandhi Bharat programme but we are holding a condolence meeting for Manmohan Singh here. That is how destiny is,” he mourned.

Recalling his contributions as the Prime Minister, the DCM said, “Right to Education, Right to health and Right to food security changed the face of India. He was the one who mooted the idea of Asha workers in health sector. He ensured that farmers get their fair share of money while parting with their land for developmental works.”

“During the Ballari padayatra in 2010, we saw women working in other farms. My inter-actions with them gave birth to the idea of MGNREGA. We shared a lot of our learnings with Sonia Gandhi when we met her later. Dhruv Narayan and I formed a delegation and suggested some changes to MGNREGA to ensure that farmers can get MGNREGA work done in their farms as well.”

“It was Manmohan Singh’s Right to Food security that led to Siddaramaiah launching Anna Bhagya in 2013. He also introduced Right to Forest Land to help farmers, SC/STs who were tilling lands near forests,” he added. “Manmohan Singh waived off loans of farmers for the first time. He wrote off Rs 70,000 crore loans of farmers while loans of only big industrialists were waived off earlier. He may have left us now but his work and legacy remain amidst us forever.

Let us follow his footsteps,” he noted.

“We came to know about his demise around 9:50 while were having dinner. Our seniors from Delhi asked us to put off tomorrow’s programme,” he informed.