District in-charge Minister B. Ramanath Rai on Tuesday took on Nalin Kumar Kateel, Dakshina Kannada MP, and wanted him to speed up pending development projects in the constituency.
Without naming Mr. Kateel, Mr. Rai took a dig at the “no. 1 MP” title conferred upon him by a vernacular daily and said no one knew the basis on which the MP had been chosen for the position. One could not become no. 1 just by spending the MPLAD funds, he said. A sum of Rs. 26 crore had been released for construction of service roads between B.C. Road and Surathkal (Port Connectivity project). The MP has to get the work speeded up, without which people would not pay the toll, he said. Similarly, the work on the road underbridge on Padil-Bajal Road was moving at a slow pace. The region was in need of an IIT; a world class railway station; central university; full-fledged passport office and many more. There are MPs from the coastal region without ‘numbers,’ — Shobha Karandlaje and D.V. Sadananda Gowda. Let them join hands with the “no. 1 MP” to get these projects to the region, Mr. Rai said.