Minister In-charge of Dakshina Kannada district J. Krishna Palemar said here on Sunday that the government would provide sites and financial assistance for building 700 houses to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes people under the jurisdiction of the Mangalore City Corporation.
Mr. Palemar was unveiling a statue of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on the premises of the Town Hall.
The Minister said 600 units would come up under Vajpayee Ashraya Yojane. The government would form a layout on about six acres of land at Idya and distribute 600 housing sites. Each beneficiary would be given Rs. 1.50 lakh as assistance to build houses. Sites and financial assistance for building 100 houses would be provided in different wards of the corporation.
Mr. Palemar said the government was committed to the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes people. It would acquire private land on which people from those sections were residing now and develop those properties as their colonies.
Commissioner of the corporation K.N. Vijayaprakash said the civic body would build a multi-storeyed building for pourakarmikas (civic workers) of the civic body at an estimated cost of Rs. 1.20 crore. It had made budgetary allocation for it in the 2011-12 budget of the civic body.
He said the corporation had planned to develop two colonies of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes people in the city as model colonies by improving infrastructure facilities there.
The Commissioner said it had been proposed to set up a training centre this financial year for candidates from deprived sections of society who would like to take up job-oriented vocations. In addition to this, during 2011-12 it had been proposed to set up a training centre for students from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for various courses.
An Assistant Executive Engineer of the corporation said the statue of Dr. Ambedkar and a pedestal had been erected at an estimated cost of Rs. 11 lakh.
Dalit Sangarsha Samithi leader P. Keshava told presspersons that the Scheduled Castes people were pressing for installing the statue of Ambedkar for long.
Mayor Praveen, Mangalore South MLA N Yogish Bhat, and the councillors were present.
