K. Raghupati Bhat, former MLA and Bharatiya Janata Party leader, said on Friday that Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Fisheries, and Youth Services, was deliberately delaying the construction of the Malpe-Padukere bridge.
Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Bhat said that the then B.S. Yeddyurappa Government had given ₹25 crore as special grant to the Udupi municipality which was celebrating its platinum jubilee in 2011-12.
Of this, ₹6 crore was kept aside for the construction of the bridge, which was a long-pending demand of the people of Padukere.
But the construction of the bridge was estimated at ₹13.5 crore. When the then BJP government provided ₹13.5 crore under the Nagarothana Scheme in 2012-13, an amount of ₹7.5 crore was provided for the bridge.
The foundation stone for the construction of the bridge was laid on January 21, 2013.
Its construction was to have been completed in 24 months.
However, the company constructing the bridge needed ₹1.4 crore more for its completion, which the State government later agreed to provide. Now most portion of the bridge had been completed except for the northern and southern tips. The company had held up the completion work because of non-receipt of funds from the government.
Mr. Madhwaraj, who is also the district in-charge Minister, was not interested in early completion of the bridge because he feared that if it was inaugurated now, people would forget it by the time Assembly elections were announced, he said. “Instead of delaying its completion, Mr. Madhwaraj should expedite it as people from Padukere had to take a circuitous route to reach Malpe or had to depend on a boat to ferry across the river. If necessary let him hold its inauguration close to the next Assembly elections. Let not the people suffer till then,” he said.
“If the bridge is not thrown open to traffic within 15 days, we will launch an agitation,” Mr. Bhat said.
