Udupi: Shettar Inaugurates Town Hall, Sings Praises of District
Pics: Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SM)
Udupi, Oct 1: The newly-built Town Hall was inaugurated by chief minister Jagadish Shettar here on Monday October 1.
Speaking on the occasion, Shettar said, "At this moment while I inaugurate this Town Hall, I remember former chief minister the late J H Patel for separating Udupi from Dakshina Kannada. It is because of the separation that Udupi could get its own Town Hall."
Shettar also sang praises of the district complex and said that Udupi is famous not just in the state but in the whole of India.
"The city muncipal council has won three awards at the state and national levels and also for being the best CMC. Raghupati Bhat has been the ideal candidate to represent Udupi, all districts should have people's representatives like him. He is very enthusiastic about development...when the leader is good, the place will also be good," he said.
He also said that gram panchayat in Udupi is given equal importance as the rest, and compared to north Karnataka, the gram panchayats in Mangalore and Udupi stand first.
"Nirmal Gram Puraskar is the best example of this. Udupi also has the maximum tax collection, which shows the level of awareness among the public as well as the administration," he added.
He further said, "When Yeddyurappa was the chief minister and I was the speaker (2008-2009), I had told him that to develop any district, it is important to set aside a special grant, which would be used only for development. Yeddyurappa immediately agreed and granted Rs 1,720 crore for different districts, out of which Udupi received Rs 30 crore. It is because of this grant that so much development has taken place in Udupi.
"Four-lane roads, 24/7 water supply and ban on plastic make Udupi CMC special and different from all others," he added, lauding the local politicians and officials for their work.
"The state has given all it can to Udupi, but we will give more funds in future. But we expect the centre to grant funds for development at the grassroots level. We have already made a request in this regard and expect a positive response," he said.
Addressing the gathering, MLA Raghupati Bhat gave a detailed report on Shettar's visit to the district. Apart from Town Hall, Shettar inaugurated Bhujanga Park built at a cost of Rs one crore, unveiled a bust of Karamballi Sanjeeva Shetty at Ambagilu junction, laid the foundation stone for the four-lane work at Kalsanka (to be undertaken at a cost of Rs 26.5 crore), inaugurated an SC/ST hostel built at Rs 2 crore and another girls hostel built at Rs 1.35 crore, an information centre set up at Rs 1.5 crore and four police department complexes at Rs one crore. The Town Hall which he inaugurated at the end was built at a cost of Rs 4 crore.
Bhat also praised and thanked Shettar for all that he did as a revenue minister when the late Dr V S Acharya was the district incharge. "In Malpe, 50 acres of land was converted into habitable land and 500 fishermen families were rehabilitated there, and this was possible because of Shettar," he said.
Arogya cards were also distributed on the occasion.
Muzrai minister Kota Srinivas Poojary, president of CMC Kiran Kumar, vice-president Bharati Chandrashekar, DC Dr M T Reju, MP Jayaprakash Hegde, Kaup MLA Lalaji mendon, SP Dr Boralingaiah, ZP president Katapady Shankar Poojary and others were present.