Above politics
Mangaluru South MLA J.R. Lobo, a former bureaucrat, appears to think and work beyond politics, keeping in mind development too. He got Rs. 8 crore of Public Works Department allocation for each MLA constituency for improving the approach road to the district court complex on Bavuta Gudda besides getting another Rs. 3 crore from the department required for the work.
A wider approach road was essential for the eight-storied new court complex to get fire safety clearance. When the building was to be inaugurated last year, the MLA had given an undertaking that he would get the MLA funds for the road improvement thereby paving way for the inauguration. “If politics was the sole consideration for undertaking development works, I would have utilised the Rs. 8 crore funds to develop eight roads in my constituency thereby pleasing my voters. However, infrastructure creation and all-round development of the city too is my concern and hence I decided to utilise the funds for court road,” he said. It is also essential that the common man and legal fraternity making use of the court complex are not put to inconvenience.
Funds allocation
Elected representatives are expected to allocate funds from their area development fund impartially. Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, in a reply to the felicitation to him at his party’s district office here on Saturday went on to say that party authorities in taluks decide about the allocation of funds. They decide about the priority and he goes by it. Will political parties have any soft corner in allocating funds for areas dominated by their opponent parties? The felicitation had been organised for the MP fully utilising Rs. 5 crore from his area development fund during 2014-15.
— ANIL KUMAR SASTRY and RAVIPRASAD KAMILA
