The Congress is indulging in misinformation campaign against Nalin Kumar Kateel, Member of Parliament, that he has not done anything for the development of Dakshina Kannada keeping next year’s Lok Sabha elections in mind, Sanjeeva Matandoor, MLA from Puttur and also president of Dakshina Kannada unit of the BJP, said here on Monday.
Addressing presspersons, he said that the MP has got released funds to the tune of ₹ 15,145 crore to Dakshina Kannada from the Union government from 2014-15 to till date (during 2018-19).
Unable to tolerate the development works taken up by the MP the Congress has resorted to negative campaigning, he said.
Referring to the Congress activists holding a protest in the city recently against the delay in completing flyover work at Pumpwell and Thokkottu on the National Highway 66, Mr. Matandoor said that design issues delayed the commencement of the work initially. Though the Union government invited bids on March 9, 2010 for building the flyovers, it took three years for finalising the design of the flyover at Pumpwell due to intervention from the district administration and the Mangaluru City Corporation. Hence, work commenced only in 2013. Later, Navayuga Udupi Tollyway Pvt. Ltd., which is building it, delayed the work, he said. The MP has held several meetings with the company with a view to getting work on the project completed at the earliest. Now, the company has promised that it would complete the flyover work at Thokkottu by December 2018 and the one at Pumpwell by January 2019.
Mr. Matandoor said that two industrial incubation centres have been opened in the district in the last four years. In addition, 15 tinkering laboratories and 15 Jan Aushadhi shops have been opened. He said that proposals have been sent to construct by-pass roads at Sullia and Belthangady-Ujire. The detailed project reports were now being prepared, he added. The MLA said that ₹ 20 crore has been released to Mangalore University under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan and ₹ 14 crore has been released to seven government first grade colleges in the district under the abhiyan. In addition, 105 telecom towers of BSNL has been built in the district for mobile phone connectivity.
Cooking gas connections have been given to 12,792 persons under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.
Y. Bharat Shetty, MLA, Mangaluru City North, was present.