Pics: Spoorthi Ullal

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SB)

Mangaluru, Jan 3: Former minister and Congress leader Ramanath Rai slammed the union government for the abrupt stoppage of road work between Bengaluru and Mangaluru and warned of holding severe protest.

Addressing media, he said, “The second phase of work of National Highway which connects Bengaluru to Mangaluru is stopped due to lack of funds from the union government. The work was approved by the UPA government and the first phase was completed. But after the UPA government’s tenure, the Modi led cabinet set up NITI Aayog instead of planning commission. This NITI Aayog has completely failed to monitor various projects started with funds from the central government.

“Construction company L&T were the contractors of the second phase of work and they stopped working due to unavailability of funds. National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) gave in charge of work to its subsidiary body Infrastructure Leasing (IL) and Financial Services (FS). But this department is facing huge shortage of funds and cannot sanction the amount to contractors. As per officials, several times they informed about this to NHAI. But the union government is not showing any interest to release necessary funds to NHAI or its subsidiary agencies. Hence, the contractors left work half way. It shows the union government’s negligence towards our district. Our parliamentary representatives do not have any guts to demand funds from the government and put pressure on officials.

“Condemning the negligence of the union government especially in the case of national highways, I will hold a three-day paadayatre which starts on January 13. The paadayatre named as ‘Heddari Poornagolisi matthe Janara Prana Ulisi’. It will be flagged off at Nelyadi and culminate at BC Road. A large number of locals and commuters of this road have come forward to support the paadayatre.

“Under the rule of Congress and its allies at the centre, the district witnessed many development works. Many projects were started in the district. But when NDA came to power, the funding for district stopped. They merged our banks with north Indian banks. Many industries shifted to other states. Our parliament members allowed this all without any opposition," he said.

J R Lobo, former MLA, Harish Kumar, MLC, Bhaskar Moily, mayor, Shalet Pinto, Naveen D’Souza were present.