Bengaluru : “Manmohan Singh was a visionary leader, a person who contributed to the growth and recognition of the common man and the country and Bengaluru globally through economic policies,” said DCM DK Shivakumar. He spoke on Monday during the condolence message on the first day of the Assembly Budget Session.

“He provided grants for the Electronic City of Bengaluru, Nelamangala, the airport, and the flyover at Kolar. He provided a lot of grants for the development of Bengaluru through the NURM project. Dr Singh had immense faith in Bengaluru. He helped financially out of his heart. The income was also coming back here in the same way. Now 39 percent of the country’s income comes from Bengaluru through IT-BT exports. Singh contributed to the development of Bengaluru with such foresight,” he said.

“I had earlier discussed with the Higher Education Minister about launching a project in Manmohan Singh’s name. I have an idea that we should do something that will keep his name alive forever. We will think about how to name it in the coming days,” he said.

“We should not forget the programmes implemented during the UPA period, the decisions taken for the welfare and livelihood of the people. They had waived off more than Rs 70,000 crore of farmers’ loans in nationalized banks. They brought an excellent scheme called the Food Security Act so that no one in the country should suffer from hunger. They allowed each panchayat to use a grant of Rs 3-4 crore through NREGA. Before this, a panchayat did not even get a grant of Rs 1 lakh. During JH Patel’s time, a grant of Rs 5 lakh was being received. In addition, there is a scheme in NREGA where farmers can work on their own land and get money through NREGA,” he said.

“He brought the Forest Land Rights Act, Right to Education Act, Right to Information Act. He implemented a scheme to providdouble compensation to people who lost their land, triple compensation if it is within 15 km, and 4 times compensation in rural areas. This has benefited many. Those of us who are in the government may feel that this money is a burden. During the Governor’s speech, he said that about Rs. 20,000 crore should be given for land acquisition. Before this act, it used to be Rs 3-4000 crore. But this has benefited the farmers who lost their land. This is Manmohan Singh’s vision,” he said.

Dr Singh was the one who pioneered the use of CSR

“Rs 8,100 crore CSR money is being collected in our state alone. Manmohan Singh was the one who introduced this CSR scheme. Pranab Mukherjee was the Finance Minister at that time. At that time, the corporate sector implemented this scheme by saying that 2 percent of the money should be allocated for social work,” he said.