Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (PS/SP)

Udupi, Feb 11: Former MLA from the local legislative constituency, Raghupati Bhat, has sought from current MLA, Pramod Madhwaraj, clarification over his statement that he would have earned Rs 132 crore as commission had he opted to receive commission being paid at ten percent of the amount of grant on development works. Terming this statement as a insult to parliamentary system of democracy, he sought full details from the MLA.

It may be recalled that Madhwaraj, addressing a meeting held at Bengaluru on January 10 by voluntary organizations working for efficient administration and human rights, had said that legislators are compelled to be corrupt as they need money for elections. He also had said that it was a common practice for people's representatives to collect ten percent of grants as commission, but had added that he had stayed away from getting involved with this wrongdoing.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday February 10, Bhat termed these utterances as an insult to democratic system. He asked Madhwaraj to provide a list of Congress MLAs who are collecting commission this way. He also called upon the current MLA to release a list of Rs 1,320 crore special grant Madhwaraj had claimed he had brought to his constituency, duly leaving out the grants sanctioned during the tenure of BJP and central government grants.

"I do not see Rs 1,320 crore having been spent in this constituency for development works. This situation has given rise to doubt whether the rate of commission went up from ten to hundred percent out of this sum," he ridiculed.

Bhat felt that BJP is assured of success in the panchayat elections in this district as the people are fed up of Congress misrule. He listed out failures of the local MLA as non-starting of postgraduate centre, not giving taluk status to Brahmavar, and total silence of the MLA on issues bothering his constituency. He said that when BJP was in power, multi-village drinking water project had been drawn up at four places in the constituency, but there has been no further progress during the last three years thereafter.

"In the past, no BJP canidate had won from Brahmavar, Kallianpur, and Perdur blocks. This time, BJP will win in all the panchayats, and the pledge taken by former MP, Jayaprakash Hegde, to humble the Congress will come as boon for our party," he stated.