Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)
Udupi, May 19: Urban development minister and district incharge Vinay Kumar Sorake on Tuesday May 19 lashed out at the union government, particularly at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and said that Modi's 'right hand' industrialist Gautam Adani's group had come forward to purchase UPCL as part of a 'strategy' to acquire farmers' land.
Addressing a press meet here, Sorake said, "Prime Minister Modi’s right hand Adani's group has come forward to purchase UPCL by investing Rs 6,500 crore. The central government is plotting a strategy to acquire land belonging to poor farmers. This is the achievement of one year of Modi-led government."
"I have always been against the 1,200-MW UPCL power plant. The authorities should have sorted out all the problems faced by the famers before acquiring their agricultural land in Kaup," he added.
"Rs 6,400 crore had been sanctioned by the central government for three projects, but Modi cancelled the sanctioned amount of Rs 3,000 crore and there are no other grants sanctioned by the centre except the MP fund. The centre has released only Rs 82 crore under Swachch Bharat Abhiyan scheme. Modi says his dream is 'Make in India', but he has not even prepared guidelines for achieving this," he said.
Condemning MP Shobha Karandlaje's statement that Congress government in the state has been a 'big zero', Sorake said, "If she is concerned about development of her own city, she should have asked sought IIT for her own constituency instead of Raichur district. She has no confidence in her ability to make contributions to society."
Sorake, describing the two successful years of the Congress administration, said that the first phase of the most-awaited Varahi irrigation project, totally worth Rs 596 crore, has been started. "Foundation was recently laid for the Rs 141.38-crore advanced research center at Belapu. The state has completed more than 100 promises made to the public," he added.
He further added that before commenting, BJP members should look at their own track record when they were in power in the state.
He further said, "The state government has sanctioned Rs 123 crore for the development of coastal fishing and other basic infrastructure. The diesel subsidy was increased from Rs 300 to Rs 400 and the banking loan closing term was increased from 12 to 24 months for women. A proposal has been sent to the central government for the construction of Hejamady port. Approximately, 244 sea walls have been constructed and work amounting to Rs 2,730.24 lac of work is in process. Total Rs 168 crore worth of the sea wall project (from Ullal) is under process as per the ADB scheme and the third phase of Malpe port is under way. Udupi district has achieved 99.23 percent of success in revival of 116 lakes at an expense of Rs 413.78 lac."
Sorake said he felt happy about Udupi and Dakshina Kannada achieving good results in SSLC and PUC exams, and praised the toppers hailing from the twin districts.
Speaking about Ksheera Bhaggya and other government schemes, he said that 2,03,734 students were provided milk three days in a week and 21,621 bicycles were distributed to the students.
Construction of Mini Vidhana Soudha
"A Mini Vidhana Soudha building is to be established and an amount of Rs 5 crore has been released. A 25 acre site has been identified at Uppoor for a new police training school and 10 acre of land has been reserved for the establishment of a University center," he informed.
"Nearly 32,638 Anthyodaya cards and 1,2,373 BPL cards have been distributed till now. In this term 1,471 people received old age pension, 6,981 widow pension and 2,016 received disability pension. A total Rs 85 crore grant was sanctioned to the City Municipal Council, Udupi," said Sorake.
Regarding the upcoming gram panchayat elections, he said, "The preparation for gram panchayat elections is going well and we have been conducting meeting in every block office to strengthen the party's unity."