Pics: Spoorthi Ullal

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (DV)

Mangaluru, Mar 16:  Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has criticised the opposition Congress party in the State "for fooling the people with lies by issuing guarantee cards to the voters."

“What should people do with those cards which are not useful? People will throw all these guarantee cards into the dustbin,” he said.

Speaking at a function after the distribution of various facilities to the beneficiaries of various state and union programmes on Thursday, March 16 at Karavali Ground here, the chief minister said that the government has relaxed the CRZ norms.

“So that will be helpful.  We could not carry out any activities on the coastal region because of the CRZ norms. Tourism and economic activities are lagging behind. It was a long pending demand of 35 years. Funds have been sanctioned to develop Mangaluru and Karwar ports. Eight fishing ports are being developed,” chief minister Bommai said. 

The chief minister said for the first time the government has sanctioned the Marina project in the state's coastal region of the Arabian Sea which will boost fishing, trade and tourism.  

“The BJP government is providing Rs 10,000 under the Kissan Sanman project for the benefit of the farmers. There are 53,430,00 farmers in the state. The government has released Rs 16 crores. In Dakshina Kannada there are 1, 39,571 farmers availing themselves of the facilities. The government has sanctioned Rs 500 crore,” he said.

Bommai added that when the UPA government was in power it used to mint 80% commission putting the poor into misery or poverty. He also added this was not said by the BJP but by their own prime minister late Rajiv Gandhi.  The government is providing scholarships to students from Rs 2,000 to 13,000. Many farmer's children are benefiting from this, the chief minister said.

“There are people who speak about social justice but, this government has provided social justice to the people. The development of backward-class people has been used only during elections,” chief minister Bommai said.

He said the reservation for SC/ST had been increased during the BJP government after 35 years.

Ministers Kota Srinivas Poojary, S Angara, V Sunil Kumar, MLA Vedavyas Kamath also spoke on the occasion.

MLC Prathap Simha Nayak, MLAs Harish Poonja, Dr Y Bharath Shetty, Sanjeeva Matandoor, Rajesh Naik, Mayor Jayanand Anchan, deputy mayor Poornima, Deputy Commissioner Ravikumar MR Zilla Panchayat CEO Dr Kumar and others were present on the occasion.