BENGALURU: KPCC president DK Shivakumar on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to drop the proposal to shift ISRO's Indian Human Space Flight programme from Bengaluru to Gujarat. Shivakumar has written separate letters to Modi and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
"The Indian Human Space Flight programme was initiated by ISRO in 2007 to develop technology needed to launch a crew-based orbital spacecraft into low-earth orbit as part of its Gaganyaan project," Shivakumar said in his letter to Modi.
"The agency planned the first manned crew flight in 2003 on homegrown GSLV rocket. If completed on schedule, India will become the fourth nation to launch an independent space flight after the US, Soviet Union (Russia) and China. It is a prestigious and epoch-making project. People of Karnataka are proud of this institution because it is located in Bengaluru," he added.
In his letter to Bommai, he said, "Kannadigas are basically emotional people and get attached to national programmes and feel proud when Karnataka hosts such programmes. Kannadigas are shocked and severely hurt to know that there are plans to shift this prestigious programme to Gujarat."
"If it happens, the Kannadigas will feel that the Centre is ignoring, betraying and giving scant respect to the feelings of the people of Karnataka. There is outrage over stepmotherly treatment being meted out to Karnataka by the Centre in several spheres. The move will cause adverse effects on consolidation of the federal system in the nation," he added.
He urged Bommai to take a delegation of Karnataka MPs to the Centre. "Use your good office to explain the above to the PM and ensure that the self-respect of Kannadigas is upheld," he urged Bommai.