Palemar’s move to involve local builders in road work questioned

Palemar’s move to involve local builders in road work questioned

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Sept. 24, 2011: Former MLA Vijaykumar Shetty said that District-in-charge Minister Krishna J. Palemar’s move of seeking help from local builders for the development of roads in Mangalore has led to a number of suspicions.

Speaking at a press meet held today, he alleged that this is the minister’s plan to regularize a few illegal structures, adding that the fact that citizens are being made to depend on local builders for road repair in spite of paying road tax illustrates the pathetic state of the administration.

 

 

Further explaining the move, he said that the MCC will provide crushed stone, cement, and labor costs while the builders will provide the laborers and inspect the quality of work. The former MLA also wanted to know the motives behind such a move and whether the MCC is short of qualified engineers.

Mr. Shetty also pointed out the fact that Palemar is least interested about the situation of roads within the jurisdiction of Gram Panchayats. He also said that the sanctioned funds of Rs. 100 crore was used to concretize roads leading to major apartments belonging to Palemar’s builder friends, adding that Palemar had a vital role to play in making modifications to the CDP so that people belonging to poor and middle classes could no longer construct houses on their own land.

Speaking on the occasion, Lancelot Pinto, the opposition leader, challenged Palemar to allow local builders to adopt slum areas and develop them. He said that handing over road work to builders simply raises the question as to what the tax money is being used on.

Shashidar Hegde, the former mayor; Corporate Naveen D’Souza; and Sudhir T. K. were also present at the press conference.