Mangaluru: While the Congress party in the district is seeking votes from the public, shedding light on the “failures” of MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and the incomplete Pumpwell and Thokkottu flyovers, the Bharatiya Janata Party is batting for its candidate Nalin claiming that he had succeeded in bringing developmental works of over Rs 16,520 Crore for Dakshina Kannada district between 2014-2019. “We seek votes based on our MP Nalin’s performance”, say the BJP leader.
The BJP and its leaders claim that though Thokkottu and Pumpwell flyovers were not completed within the deadline, it is neither the fault of contract company nor the mistake of the union government. The land acquisition required for the projects by the union government is the responsibility of the state government. The state government’s failure to acquire the land, has led to the delay in the completion of both the flyovers, say BJP leaders. “The delay in acquiring the land and repeated changes in the design of new KSRTC bus stand, forced the NHAI to stall the project for some time which have led to the delay in completing the flyover projects”, alleges MP and BJP candidate Nalin Kumar Kateel.
It may be recalled that Congress leader and former minister B Ramanath Rai had recently stated that he would retire from active politics if it is be proven that the highway widening work between B C Road and Addahole was stalled due to the delay in land acquisition by the state government. Rai had said that BJP was misguiding the public in order to gain votes.
However, BJP leaders counter this saying that Congress has no any major issues to bank on and hence are claiming that BJP did nothing during the last 10 years. In order to gain power by hook or crook, they are just taking up the issues like incomplete flyover projects and delay in completion of highway widening work between B C Road and Addahole and Kulashekhar and Karkala.
Dakshina Kannada District BJP Spokesperson Jithendra Kottary says that BJP is the not blindly talking about Nalin Kumar Kateel’s good work, but the surveys conducted by different organisations have proved his ability. Kottary told newskarnataka.com that the Gulbarga University had done a survey in which Balpa village which was taken as Adarsh Gram Yojana by MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, secured the first place among all the other villages taken by the remaining MPs of the country. “Nalin has secured 6th place in performance among all the MPs, according to a survey conducted by ‘Times’ newspaper and secured first place according to Kannada daily Vijayavani. The good work by Nalin helped him to secure good positions in all the surveys made by the different organisations”, he said.
