JD(S)’ Jaladhare rally may go padayatra way

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: The extension of Covid rules including night curfew and week-end curfew till January 31 has cast a shadow on the proposed ‘Janata Jaladhare’ by the Janata Dal (Secular) which is slated to begin on January 23.

According to former CM and state JD(S) leader, H.D.Kumaraswamy, the yatra is scheduled to be launched by former PM and JD(S) patriarch H.D.Deve Gowda at Sri Chamundeshwari Temple in Ramanagar City on January 23. Later, fifteen teams were supposed to traverse through the State covering almost 190 Assembly constituencies in 15 days.

The yatra was aimed at giving a commitment to people that if the JD(S) came to power, it would complete all pending and ongoing irrigation projects plus ensure tap water for every citizen in the State. The party has plans to collect water from all the holy rivers such as Cauvery, Krishna, Kumudvathi, Arkavathy, Bhima and keep it in kalashas at the party office in Bengaluru where the puja would be performed for the next 390 days.

Already, vehicles are ready for the Jaladhara yatra at the party office. But after the increase in Corona numbers with the cases crossing the 25,000 mark daily, and the government imposing night curfew and week-end curfew till January 31 besides banning congregation of people at public places, the JD(S) had to do a rethink.

This became all the more necessary after the Congress Party which had already covered 40-45 km of its padayatra from Mekedatu to Bengaluru, decided to defer it till the Covid situation improves. The Jaladhara yatra by the JD(S) may face a similar fate in view of the outbreak of the epidemic in the state.

A senior JD(S) leader told News Trail that the postponement of the yatra is likely to be announced by Kumaraswamy in a day or two. Unlike Congress leaders, the JD(S) does not want to have a faceoff with the government in this regard as it is bothered about the health of citizens. Even party supremo Deve Gowda favours putting off the event by a few weeks till the third wave subsides in the state. “Whatever we are doing is for the people. Nothing must be done that would put people’s health in peril”, he added.

Kumaraswamy has already clarified that the Jaladhare yatra has nothing to do with the Mekedatu project as their priorities are different from that of the Congress Party. The JD(S) does not believe in attacking any party over the non-completion of irrigation projects which have been pending for the last so many decades but would only like to give a commitment to people that they would be completed on priority, he added.

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