By IANS,
Bangalore : The Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) Monday promised to distribute free cooking stove and supply free cooking gas to the poor in poll-bound Karnataka, a waiver of home loans for lower income groups, job reservation to Kannadigas in IT and BT sectors and pension to retired Muslim clerics.
“The party will strive for reserving 30 percent of jobs in the IT and biotechnology sectors to locals,” the party said in its manifesto for the three-phase Karnataka assembly polls beginning May 10.
The party, if voted to power, will also write off all loans of farmers who had committed suicides unable to bear the debt burden.
Wooing the sizeable minority votes in the state, the party said it will set up a special cell to implement the recommendations of the Sachar committee on the welfare of Muslims.
It will provide a monthly pension of Rs.500 to retired Pesh Imams and Mouzans of mosques.
Releasing the manifesto six days ahead of the first phase of voting, JD-S president and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda mocked the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for promising free power to farmers.
“Karnataka is a power-deficit state. From where will they give free power?” he asked.
Deve Gowda said his party will not have any post-poll alliance with the Congress or BJP, with whom JD-S had aligned in turn to form coalition governments after the fractured verdict of the 2004 assembly polls.