Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Apr 27: The Congress on Friday April 27 released its manifesto for the crucial Karnataka elections in a ceremony held in the city. President of the party Rahul Gandhi did the honours.
Besides the main manifesto, the Congress has also prepared a separate manifesto focussing on four distinct regions of the state, promising development of each district that comes under those regions.
Dakshina and Udupi have been promised several sops and development works. Here's what's in store for the twin districts:
Dakshina Kannada: Key Points
Infrastructure
- Solid waste management cess will be exempt for buildings implementing waste management solutions aimed at 0% waste.
- Improve basic infrastructure and expansion of industrial area at Baikampady area, parcularly for small scale industries,
- Air connectivity between Mangaluru and Hubbali
- Take up expansion of Mangaluru airport runway from 2450 to 3050 meters
- Strengthen the New Mangaluru port
- Double the railway tracks from Mangaluru to Mumbai and Mangaluru to Bengaluru
- Provide utility duct across all roads
- Develop outer ring roads for better logistics-enabled city.
- Take up Conversion of State Highways to National Highway and main district roads to State Highways for better
management of roads and increased investment hot spots in prominent areas
- Ensure mandatory compliance with Ground Water Conservation and Regulatory Act, reduction of non-revenue water from 50% to 30%, adoption of green building based model/concept, and restoration of lakes and tanks.
- Take up development of beaches and river-fronts as recreational areas, and construction of permanent sea protecon
for erosion protection
- Traffic congestion at Nantoor and Pumpwell junctions will be taken care of by expediting the construction of flyover in the region
- Upgrading Mangaluru railway stations to internaonal level, as this has been a long pending request of the railway users of Dakshina Kannada and this will give a boost to the economy of this region
- Six lane road will be constructed between Jokatte railway station and the airport
- Setup a port development authority for development of Mangaluru ports, for focusing on small and medium ports
- Setting up a dedicated SEZ with an area of 3,985 acres of which 1,800 acres is under possession.
Industrial Development & Tourism
- Encourage sector specific tourism (educational, adventure, beach, religious and cultural, and wellness), medical tourism, - Tourism based UG courses to support PG course
- Support and simplification of cruise tourism and re-establishing connectivity to Lakshadweep
- Five industrial parks will be created - Plastic industry (regulated usage to disposal), women entrepreneurship supported tech-park, food processing parks, automobile tech-park, and multi-level industrial complex for MSME.
- Earmarked 3,000 acres for mega industries.
- 100% rain water harvesting for these industries, consideration of tertiary treated water to 80 MLD of water (currently 27 MLD) and de-salination plant for mega industries.
- Provide port connecvity to entire state
- Sashihithlu beach will be developed as surfing beach
- Setting up a separate Karavali Tourism Development Authority which could approve, execute and monitor tourism projects in the future and will help in developing and showcasing the uniqueness of our Karavali region in a faster
manner.
- Encourage religious and health tourism
Information Technology and Biotechnology
- Create Mangaluru as the next Silicon Valley of India and BPO hub of Karnataka
- Shift base of CRZ headquarters to Mangaluru from Bengaluru.
- Invite and facilitate 3 mega IT industries, providing the companies with government-sponsored IT parks
- 300,000 square feet (minimum 3000 seats) plug and play co-sharing space
- Establish of ESDM incubation center, with 50,000 square feet for working and 50,000 square feet for hardware and software development with an area of 100 acres for IT entrepreneurs.
- Provide encouragement and support in increasing the number of patents; increasing the connectivity through air to Europe and the USA.
- Set up beach tourism in Mangaluru, Udupi and Karwar districts and Coastal Beach Tourism Authority.
- Underground drainage/sewage Plant in all urban local bodies
- Initiate the Formation of BITA (Baikampady Industrial Township Authority) in Mangaluru
Education
- Create an Educational hub: Mangaluru-Konaje-Udupi
- Sustain the region as the knowledge hub of the country
- Create qualitative human resources through life skills, social sensitisation and improving critical questioning capability of the children by creating a better learning atmosphere for children.
- Create comprehensive database on education, healthcare, and social sector database as one of the action items for the overarching developmental vision.
Law and Justice
- Set up a high court bench in the district
- Increase in the percentage of women in police and women police stations
- Mediation and arbitration centers will be increased across the district.
- Introduce token facility, electronic display of case/ serial number, and audio system in the courts.
- Equip every police station with CCTV in chamber and hall, that will be strictly monitored.
Health and Nutrition
- Promote medical tourism
- Improve doctor patient ratio in the PHCs
- Eradicate all communicable diseases
- Special care centres for disabled, destitute and children
- Introduce of de-addiction centres
- Provide 24X7 availability of doctors in all hospitals.
Udupi District: Key Points
Infrastructure
- Better land utilisation planning based on GIS-based land utility / resource management software
- Management of natural resources such as ground water, rainwater harvesting, solar mapping, land utilisation integrated with geomorphological analysis, etc will be explored.
- Roads and basic amenities will be developed at Sita Nadi waterfalls and Jomluteertha waterfalls
- Beautiful beaches will be developed across 98 km of sea shore to make the stretch serve as a recreational space for the public
Tourism
- Beach tourism in Kaup, Malpe, Maravanthe, Ottinene, Gangoli and St Mary’s Island by constructing high-mast lights, viewpoints, provision for drinking water, toilets and changing rooms, temporary structures for refreshment, cubical shower block, pedestrian seating benches, last mile connectivity, landscape walkway, signage around beaches (‘Keep it clean’ and ‘danger’ warning signs, etc.), waste management system, etc. A life guard training centre will be set up in Udupi district to impart safe practices near beaches and water bodies
- Religious tourism by providing affordable accommodation to all segments of population. Other areas that can be explored are adventure tourism, monument tourism and wildlife tourism
- Wildlife tourism by developing deer parks at Kollur Reserve Forest, Anejari Falls and Pilarkhana, Belman, and aquariums of international standards at Manna Palla lake in Manipal. In addition, special vehicles can be introduced like water bus, water taxi, ‘hop-in, hop-out’ city tour buses and sea planes for interesting modes of travel as per needs of visitors. Furthermore special tourism zones can be created.
Rural Development
- Creation and implementation of awareness programmes on social, cultural, economic and geographical development
- Mandate rainwater harvesting at panchayat level and formulate thorough irrigation programme
- Rejuvenation of defunct bore-wells and prioritisation of underground water level
- All kaccha roads will be converted to pakka roads along with rejuvenation of rural roads to improve connectivity
- All public toilets will be refurbished and assistance may be extended to citizens towards using sanitary facilities, aimed at reducing contamination-related diseases
- Fecal sludge treatment plant will be set up in all village headquarters
- Proper waste management at rural level to reduce dumping and increase organic farming, which in-turn would convert the disposed waste to usable fertilisers for arable lands
- Financially weaker families will be provided lands at prices benchmarked using a socio–economic base by the DC
Agricultural and Allied Sectors
- A special zone for fish processing will be developed that would employ 500 people in one unit
- Land under irrigation will be expanded from the current 1,500 hectare to 6,000 hectare
- Setting up of at least 25 farmer products enterprises and 15 evaluation centres to increase the production of Matiagulla and Udupi mallige
- For fish production, increase in fish processing from 1.52 lac metric tonne to 2.2 lac metric tonne, development of Karavali backwater fishing, and establishment of scientific fish market at the district level
- Afforestation of non-arable lands
- Development of HOPCOMS outlets in Udupi and introduction of seed mechanisation across the district
- Road connectivity between urban and rural areas will be improved
- Twenty-five FPOs will be developed in the district. -
- Endeavour to expand the Varahi irrigation programme to other taluks in Udupi district
Industrial Development
- Industrial parks (IP) will be developed based on themes such as plastic usage, disposal regulated IP, women entrepreneurship supported IP, food processing IP, automobile IP and MSME IP
- To set up fish processing zones at Hemmadi and Byndoor, and cluster-based industrial parks for electronic equipment and readymade garments
- All industries will be 100 per cent rain water harvesting compliant, fulfilling a mandatory provision
- Green and orange category enterprises will be exempted from obtaining KPCB clearance.
- Consequent on the implementation of Varahi river project to take water to Kundapur in Udupi district, Dakshina Kannada Cooperative Sugar Facility at Bramhavar will be rejuvenated, renovated and re-opened.
Urban Development and Transportation
- Development of urban infrastructure will be done considering long-term planning of resources and futuristic model looking at public habitation
- Innovative ideas for traffic management will be worked upon
- Communicaon Facilitaon Centre (Jeevan Vriddhi Kendra): Seven to nine community facilitation centres in bigger towns and larger villages will be built. These centres will help people work and learn from home and pursue agriculture as well.
- Tender sure roads and shelters for travellers: Tender Sure Roads will be developed along national highways, state highways and district roads to ease travellers and locals during heavy rains and thunderstorms. Facilities such as drinking water, electric charging points, parking shelters, rest rooms, etc, will be developed. Parking facility and rain shelters for both bus and truck terminus, in a combined manner, will be built
- To provide good quality public transport, multi-level parking at multi-mode transport hubs, good pedestrian walkways complying with the tender sure policy
- Along with development in Open Space Network, municipal areas will be earmarked for development of lakes. Other recommendations include integral development of Manapalla and Bhujanga lakes, rejuvenation of 50 small lakes, etc.
Information Technology and Biotechnology
-To invite and facilitate seting up of mega IT industries, provide companies with government-sponsored IT parks, which can have facilities on plug-and-play model, co-working spaces, BPO hub (voice and non-voice), etc.
- An application will be developed for the dissemination of information on employment, market, government schemes, tourism, etc.
- Gene banks will be set up and managed by the government.
Law and Justice
- The number of police stations across the districts will be increased along with the number of police personnel per 10 lakh population, apart from increasing the percentage of women police to the total strength
- Safety facilities will be provided to women police officers working late nights. In addition, the duration between two transfers for police personnel will be increased to make the department more citizen centric
- Increase in the number of local recruits in police force to meet the desired ratio of police personnel to citizens. In order to aim higher effectiveness of the department, police personnel could be ensured safety, medical benefits and limited working hours
- Every district to have cyber-crime station and child-friendly police station with officers and counsellors. In addition, every police station could be equipped with well-monitored CCTV facilities
- Technology will be used in all work processes across police stations.
- Complete separation of law and order operation and investigation, in order to have non-interference to achieve efficient results.
- Technology will be used in all work processes in judicial system for faster decision making
- Facilities will be provided for disabled and aged people
- Remand home and women prisons in the district equipped with basic facilities and safety measures. Prisoners will be given counselling and their mental health will be taken care of while they are in prison
- To set up a fast track court in Udupi.
Health and Nutrition
- Universal Health Coverage for all will be targeted, along with focus on prevention or cure of communicable diseases, snake bites, dog bites, etc.
- Increase in appointments of healthcare staffs, at least three doctors and one counsellor at PMH to cater to public 24x7
- Training centres for males serving as paramedics and in geriatric centres will be opened in the district.
Education
- Free education for every girl child in the district up to graduation and free food for all children up to 12th standard
- Model Anganawadis catering to the children of age group three to six years will be run on pilot basis
Social justice & Empowerment
- Development of Koraga children by operating education centres locally. The development of traditional skills is imperative for Koraga people, along with land availability for them to upliti their socio-economic status
- A fast track judicial system will be set up to address the cases related to domestic violence
Energy
- Tidal power will be promoted as an alternative source of power generation. Underground cables will be scaled in the city incrementally for ease of maintenance. Additional power grid from Bhatkal will be constructed to address unexpected power consumption.
- Small traditional and non-traditional powerhouses such as solar-based and bio-gas-based will be prioritised for production, aimed at curtailing pollution employment and skilling
- Bridging the skill gaps between skills required by companies and skills that people have is necessary through mechanisms such as industry–institution regular interaction, incentivising industries that provide internships,
establishing skill development centres, etc.
-There could be industry exposures to students and sandwich courses at engineering and technical colleges
- A database of professional mentors in several subject lines will be identified and interaction session with mentors and other aspiring professionals can be organised for students and youths in districts.