Shobha Karandlaje, Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP, said on Friday that the State government should give priority to conducting a survey of villages, marked as eco-sensitive areas by the K. Kasturirangan Panel report, on the border areas of the Western Ghats.
Addressing presspersons here, Ms. Karandlaje said that the State government should follow the Kerala model and get the cultural and natural landscapes demarcated in the Western Ghats by retired forest officials, as their report would carry more weightage in the Supreme Court.
Instead the State government had appointed a Cabinet Sub-Committee to collect information from officials and people on the Kasturirangan panel’s report on conservation of the Western Ghats. “The State government is trying to mislead the people. The Union government has no role to play in this matter,” she said.
On the slow pace of the work of widening the Talapady-Kundapura stretch of National Highway 66, Ms. Karandlaje said that it was due to the financial troubles faced by the Navayuga Company, which was implementing the work. She had brought the matter to the notice of the Union Minister for Road Transport and National Highways Nitin Gadkari, who had assured her of getting the works expedited.
She said that the widening and concreting of the Agumbe Ghat road would be taken up shortly. A Detailed Project Report had already been prepared and a sum of Rs. 10 crore had been allotted for it.
The district administration had allocated 10 acres of land for constructing the Kendriya Vidyalaya at Alevoor village near Udupi. Since the construction could take a couple of years, it had been decided to start the Kendriya Vidyalaya at the Government Primary School premises at Malpe temporarily from the next academic year. Ms. Karandlaje said that of the 11.7 lakh population of Udupi district, 9.5 lakh people already had Aadhaar cards. The State government would start 12 new Aadhaar centres in the district in a fortnight.
She demanded a high-level probe into the group clashes which took place in Gangolli village on January 21.
Shobha Karandlaje,MP, says work on the Agumbe Ghat road would be taken up shortly
10 acres of land has been allotted for building a Kendriya Vidyalaya at Alevoor village near Udupi
