Karnataka - Udupi   

Barkur bridge to be reconstructed

By Our Staff Correspondent

UDUPI, DEC. 25. K. Jayaprakash Hegde, MLA, said here on Saturday that the reconstruction of the bridge connecting Brahmavar with Barkur, which was damaged reportedly owing to the movement of lorries overloaded with manganese ore, will be taken up at a cost of Rs. 3.10 crores.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Hegde said Rs. 1 crore was released for the reconstruction of the bridge on November 19. Tenders for the work will be invited within a week. The construction of the diversion road, including a temporary bridge near the damaged Barkur bridge, has been completed and it has been thrown open to traffic, he said. With this, travelling between Barkur and Brahmavar has become easier.

Overloaded trucks

On the issue of overloaded lorries moving in the district, he said the National Highways Authority has taken steps to provide land near Shiroor for the construction of a weighbridge. This will act as an effective check against the movement of overloaded lorries, he added. But the management of the weighbridge should be in the hands of the Government and not private parties.

He recalled that when the Janata Dal Government was in power, it decided to give 30 to 40 sites in rural areas and 20 to 30 sites in town panchayats free of cost to the poor. For any excess land allotted, a fee of Re. 1 for a square metre of the land had to be collected, he noted. But now, the officials have passed orders to collect money for the entire plot. However, a meeting held under the Revenue Minister, M.P. Prakash, on December 15 corrected the anomaly, he said.

The Revenue Minister also passed order to issue yellow ration cards under the public distribution system for 9,000 beneficiaries, which was stalled in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts, Mr. Hegde said. He would table a proposal in the next Assembly session to increase the income limit for beneficiaries living below the poverty line from Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 25,000. The distribution of ration cards in the past five years has become messy and this should be looked into, he added.

He demanded that the Mangalore Electricity Supply Company authorities give up load shedding in the Brahmavar Assembly constituency as 1.10 lakh units of power has been allotted to the constituency as against existing 85,000 units. Work on the Madhuvan power sub-station will start shortly, he said. The Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, has rolled back the 16 per cent tax imposed on fishnets, fish seeds and prawn seeds, he said.

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Barkur bridge to be reconstructed

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