Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Aug 15: The 69th Independence Day was celebrated with patriotic spirit at Nehru Maidan here on Saturday August 15.
District incharge minister hoisted the National Flag and received the guard of honour.
In his Independence Day address, Rai said, "We celebrate Independence Day with much joy and pride, but while we celebrate, we should also keep in mind that it is a day to introspect about our progress and development. Have the poor in our country, the Dalits and backward classes achieved freedom in the truest sense? We need to ponder on this. We must strengthen our nation by going beyond the differences of caste, creed and religion and love one another.
"As citizens, we should preserve and take forward our tradition and culture and strive to build an atmosphere of harmony and unity. There is a need to inculcate these values in today's youth," he added.
"Today India is among the strongest nations in the world. Be it information technology (IT), space technology or , and particularly our human resource, India has won the attention of the world," he said.
He further said that the Karnataka government is determined to provide social justice to all, and has introduced several people-friendly schemes. Listing out these schemes, he said, "With an aim to make Karnataka a hunger-free state, the state government initiated 'Anna Bhagya' scheme to provide free rice, 'Manaswini' scheme for the benefit of poor unmarried/divorced women and 'Maitri' scheme for transgenders.
"We introduced 'Ksheera Bhagya' scheme with an intention to provide nutrition to school children and 'Vidyasiri' scheme for students of backward classes to assist in their education," he added.
"Shiradi Ghat which was completely deteriorated has been concreted at a cost of Rs 69 crore in the first phase. The tender process for second phase is tender is under way and the work will be started very soon," he said.
"In Alape 5.89 acres of land has been identified for construction of DC's at a cost of Rs 41 crore. The Karnataka government has already approved the project. The complex will have provision to house 32 district offices. Mini Vidhana Soudha buildings have been constructed in Puttur and Sullia and have already started functioning, and in Mangaluru, the work is in its last phase. In Beltangady and Bantwal the approved the Mini Vidhana Soudha project and work is in progress," Rai informed.
"In January this year, we launched the educational and social census and completed it successfully. In DK, 5,000 officers designated for the job visited 44,54,780 houses to collect date," he said. It may be noted that the census was launched in April and not in January as Rai stated.
He also said that the 19th Federation Cup Athletics Meet held in April/May created history in Dakshina Kannada, wherein 31 teams from 21 states participated. The Karnataka government granted Rs 1.90 crore for this, he added.
He also informed that the government has decided to hold a mega job fair in the district in the coming months where national and international companies would be invited, with a view to provide more employment opportunities to the youth of the district.
Also, an Eco Park will be constructed at Pilikula Nisargahama at a cost of Rs 5 crore.
He also said that in DK, 45,893 applications have been receieved for akrama-sakrama under Land Revenue Act, and out of these 2,498 applications have been approved and rest will be cleared soon.
Regarding Kasturirangan report on Western Ghats, he said that the state cabinet has set up a sub-committee which has submitted the state government's reccomendations to the central government, and that the state government has recommended that people not should be affected.
On the suicide of farmers, he said, "It is very disturbing to note that so many farmers are committing suicide these days. The goverment is determined to give more importance to farmers and agriculture, and we have already given Rs 1,520 crore to sugarcane growers. No other state has given such a huge amount to sugarcane growers. Families of farmers who committed suicide will get Rs 2 lac as compensation. We have already formed district-level committees to monitor money lenders and strict action will be taken against those who trouble farmers for repayment of loans."
He ended his speech with a call to the citizens to be responsible, live with unity and harmony and keep the environment clean.
As many as 19 platoons took part in the march-past, at the end of which Air Wing NCC Senior Division and Satya Sai Alake bagged the first and second prize.
Cultural programmes will be held at Don Bosco hall at 3 pm the same day.
After the celebrations, a Independence Day cricket tournament was organized at Nehru Maidan, in which six teams participated.