Udupi, Dec 21 (The Hindu): Home Minister V.S. Acharya said on Saturday that Rs. 2 crore had been spent for repairing National Highway 17 in the district.
Briefing presspersons after the tri-monthly Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) meeting, Dr. Acharya said that about 95 per cent of the potholes on NH 17 had been filled. Five severely damaged stretches on NH 17 had been repaired. Since the widening of the NH 17 was proposed to be taken up shortly, some MLAs had urged that either underpasses or overpasses be constructed at a few junctions on the highway.
It had been decided to spend Rs. 2.5 crore on widening the Manipal-Parkala road, the Syndicate Circle-District Office Complex road, and repairing the Adiudupi-Malpe road and the Siddapur-Hulikal Ghat road in the district. A footpath and underground drain would be constructed on the recently widened Adiudupi-Kadiyali Road at a cost of Rs. 5.5 crore. The widening of the Kadiyali-Manipal Road would be completed by April next, he said.
Ration cards
Of the 2.36 lakh families in the district, 1.96 lakh families had been provided with ration cards.
Nearly 9,000 families were yet to be given ration cards, while 7,000 applications had been rejected. Photographs were not found in about 3,500 cards. The rest of the problems in the distribution of ration cards would be addressed shortly, Dr. Acharya said.
While Rs. 3.69 crore had been released to deal with the drinking water scarcity during summer, another Rs. 8 crore was expected to be released shortly. Last year, Rs. 12 crore had been released to tackle the drinking water shortage, he said.
The Education Department in the district had not received Rs. 8 crore due to it. A proposal had been submitted for release of Rs. 6.5 crore to the department.
The power shutdowns in Udupi district ranged from one-and-a-half hours to three hours. It was only on December 18 that there was a four- to five-hour shutdown owing to some technical snag, he said.
The Nagara Ashraya Scheme of providing houses to economically weak and low-income groups would be implemented in the district shortly, Dr. Acharya said.
President of the Udupi Zilla Panchayat Gladys Almeida, Deputy Commissioner P. Hemalatha and in-charge CEO of Zilla Panchayat D. Pranesh Rao were present.