MANGALURU: Mangaluru MLA UT Khader on Friday launched into a broadside against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Karnataka president Nalin Kumar Kateel and ruling party MLAs from Dakshina Kannada saying, “though it (Dakshina Kannada) has seven MLAs and an MP from the BJP, the state budget has not made sanctions for the district".
Khader said, “There is no new scheme for fishermen and no mention of Shiradi tunnel road project or Seafood Park proposed in Puttur in the budget."
The government has not earmarked funds for the Paschimavahini scheme and there is no clarity on the proposed Plastic Park too, he said.
Though Mangaluru – Panaji waterways has been mooted in the budget, there is no clarity about the implementation agency, Khader added.
There are possibilities that the project will be handed over to a private agency, he said.
A branch of Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology will be set up in Shivamogga and Mysuru.
"Similarly, a branch of the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research will be opened in Davanagere. However, nothing has been announced for the coastal district,” Khader lamented, adding that the BJP leaders in Dakshina Kannada including Kateel have been trying to fool people.
Khader said the MP has been making tall claims about the tunnel road but failed to get funds for the same in the budget.
“I think digging a tunnel road through the Shiradi Ghat is not an easy task as the railway line passes through the area,” he said.
Though there are 17 communities among backward classes, the government has earmarked only Rs 500 crore for welfare schemes, Khader said.
The powerful castes like Lingayats and Vokkaligas have got Rs 500 crore each.
Meanwhile, sanctions for the SC/ST communities have been cut.
"Though the government has presented a deficit budget, there was no mention of covering the same," the Congress leader said, adding, “It is a budget without vision".