The residents of Surathkal need to bear with the rugged 4.6-km long Surathkal-Kana-MRPL Road for some more time as execution of the work is getting delayed. While B.A. Mohiuddin Bava, MLA for Mangaluru North, is blaming BJP activist and former president of the Hindu Jagarana Vedike Satyajit Surathkal for laying obstacles, the latter alleges that the former is going ahead with the work without proper planning.
At a press conference on Thursday, Mr. Bava said Mr. Surathkal was insisting on taking up the work of widening the old railway bridge before taking up the road work. The road work has nothing to do with work related to railway bridge and it was being raised only to delay the work. A proposal has been made to the Konkan Railway for building a new bridge, he said.
‘False charges’
Mr. Bava said that he was being falsely accused of causing damage to property of a temple in Surathkal for the road work. The news was ill-founded and no damage whatsoever was being caused to the temple’s property, he said.
Disputing Mr. Bava’s claims, Mr. Surathkal, an aspirant for BJP ticket from Mangaluru North Assembly constituency, said that the objections he was raising were with a right intention. Mr. Surathkal said that it was necessary to have a new railway bridge as it will ease traffic movement on the new four-lane road. The MLA has not thought of rehabilitating some of the small-time vendors whose shops will be removed, he said.
‘After agitations’
It was following agitations by Jokatte Nagarika Hitarakashana Samiti that the corporation has taken up the repair of the road and have a four-lane road at a cost of ₹ 2.75 crore. While the civic body was spending ₹ 45 lakh, the Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd., Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL), oil marketing companies HPCL, BASF and BPCL and BASF have also given funds.
Muneer Katipalla, a member of Jokattee Nagarika Hitrakashan Vedike, said Mr. Surthakal has put forth a lame objection to stall the execution of the work. “He did not raise issue of the bridge when we were fighting,” Mr. Katipalla said. He also blamed Mr. Bava for not getting the work executed in a proper way.
