Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar felicitating cooperative sector leaders during the K.H. Patil birth centenary celebrations in Gadag on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar described the former Minister and Congress leader late K.H. Patil as a great humanitarian who worked for strengthening the cooperative sector in the State.

He was speaking after inaugurating the Gadag Cooperative Cotton Sale Society in Gadag on Sunday.

“K.H. Patil was a great humanitarian. He led us all in the party and the cooperative sector without discrimination on the basis of caste or religion,” he said.

He congratulated Minister H.K. Patil for organising the birth centenary celebrations of his father and hoped that they will inspire several cooperative societies to become more active.

Mr. Shivakumar recalled that it was K.H. Patil who, as State Congress president, gave him his first break in politics.

“I had the privilege of working with K.H. Patil for four-five years. Today, I hold the position of the KPCC president, which was held by K.H. Patil in those days. He gave me my first ticket when I was just a student leader, in 1985. He asked me to contest against H.D. Deve Gowda in the Assembly polls. Since then, I have got Congress ticket nine times and grown to this position,” he said.

He congratulated Mr. H.K. Patil for starting or supporting several cooperative institutions.

“We recently celebrated the centenary of the 1924 Congress session in Belagavi. It was the only session chaired by Mahatma Gandhi. All the plans for the celebrations were drawn up under the leadership of H.K. Patil,” he said.

“K.H. Patil showed us that all of us need to work together for the welfare of society through cooperative societies. He had taken everyone along with him and succeeded in strengthening the Congress. He served in several positions from the post of panchayat president to holding several important Ministries. The contribution of members of his family towards development of the State and Gadag district is immense,” he said.

“Gadag has progressed very much under their leadership. It has a unique district office, medical college, rural development university bearing the name of Mahatma Gandhi and a model of the Sabarmati Ashram. It was in Gadag that I observed purified drinking water units in rural areas. We set up around 300-400 such units in the Lok Sabha Constituency of my brother D.K. Suresh. Later, we announced it as a State-wide programme,” he said.

He said that he is inspired to build a public graveyard after witnessing the Mukta Vana in Gadag.