Mangalore: Ministers discuss progress of coastal region at Rachana meet

Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (NM)

Mangalore, Jul 6: An interactive session on 'Partnership and progress of coastal Karnataka' was organized by Rachana, a forum of Catholic businessmen and entrepreneurs, at Bishop's House here on Saturday July 6.

Various aspects regarding development of the coastal region, particularly the city, were discussed during the session. Rachana also handed over memorandum to the elected representatives on the occasion, with demands such as six-laning of Mangalore-Hassan highway, permission for Nano taxis, four-lane connectivity between Mangalore airport and the city, separate Mangalore railway division, tourism development and so on.

Responding to the memorandum, urban development minister Vinay Kumar Sorake said, "This programme is a sort of wake up call to the elected representives. Feedback from people is important to us so that we can bring laws into force keeping their needs in view. The demands placed by Rachana will be looked into."

He further said that he had visited all municipal corporations in the state, and had seen that development had not been the prime motto over the last few years. "The development earlier had been commercial and not done with earnest intentions. Nothing was done purely for development. Systematic implementation of programmes is necessary," he said.

"Earlier though there were opportunities, the elected representatives only looked for temporary solutions. There was no lasting solution to problems and vision was lacking. In my ministry, there is no problem of finance, but there is lack of manpower and machinery everywhere. It is my vision to see the formation of Greater Mangalore. There are plans to include Ullal, Mulky and surrounding areas under Mangalore city corporation," he said.

Regarding the connectivity between Mangalore airport and the city, he said Rs 50 crore has been set aside for the purpose and the project will be completed soon.

On tourism development, he said, "Like Goa and Kerala, there is lot of potential for tourism development in coastal Karnataka too. Goa and Kerala get lot of income through tourism. In Goa they even study tourism in school and regular camps are held on how to behave with tourists. Foreigners are greeted with smiles in Goa, but here there are instances where they have been beaten up. This has to change. Tourism can lead to development and generate employment too."

District incharge and forest minister Ramanath Rai in his brief message assured that he would respond to the demands made by Rachana in the memorandum. "This can be made possible as there are four state and two central ministers from this region. We have the resources to fulfil these demands," he said.

Health minister U T Khadar echoed Ramanath Rai and said, "Now that we have so many ministers from this region, all these development works will happen, and if they do not happen this time, they never will."

He applauded the contribution of Catholics in education sector and said, "Whenever I go to Delhi and I say that I am MLA from Mangalore, they appreciate as Mangalore is an educational hub. The Christrian community has contributed a lot to this."

He further said, "We cannot compare Mangalore to other cities as land acquisition is needed to expand roads here, which takes a lot of time. Out of the 100 crore sanctioned to tackle the problem of sea erosion, Rs 25 crore will be released in September for the first phase of the work."

He added, "It is our duty to ensure development of the region, otherwise people will remove us."

Bishop Dr Aloysius Paul D'Souza, who presided over the programme, said, "We must make the city beautiful. Now we see that wherever there is even a little space, a building comes up there, but there is no desire to build parks and plant trees.

"People waste a lot of time in traffic and in queues waiting for Aadhar and ration cards. We need better facilities and infrastructure so that people do not waste their valuable time unnecessarily," he pointed out, adding that the elected members should fulfil all the promises made in the manifesto.

During the interactive session with the audience, issues like live bands, gambling hubs, security of women, facilities to physically challenged and Endosulfan victims and so on were discussed. The ministers responded positively to the points raised and assured to look into them.

MLAs J R Lobo and Mohiuddin Bava were also present.

Rachana president Ivan D'Souza welcomed, while secretary  John Monteiro thanked. Dr Norbert Lobo compered the programme.