Along with Development Human Rights Should be Respected – Lobo During LOA meet

Along with Development Human Rights Should be Respected – Lobo During LOA meet

Mangaluru: “Along with Development Human Rights Should be Respected”, said MLA J R Lobo in a meeting held by the Land Owners Association at the Sacred Hearts School premises here on August 23.

Speaking on the occasion Lobo said, “We are all here to support development. When there is development we will all support but along with the development, human rights should be respected. We need the road to be widened since the number of vehicles have increased roads should also be developed.”

He further said, “During the road widening and survey, we had requested the NH authorities to consult us, but without our knowledge, the road survey was done. Later a meeting was convened with the leadership of district minister in-charge Ramanath Rai. In Kerala and Goa roads are only 30 meters wide but in DK, the NH authorities are not ready to listen to us. Taking with us all the necessary documents, we met the PWD minister Mahadevappa and briefed him the problems faced by 250 families. We are not against widening the NH if they limit it to 30 meters. We had requested the minister to stop the NH survey and accordingly the survey was stopped.

Lobo also said that if the NH will accept our request for 30 meters like in Goa and Kerala, we will co-operate with the authorities. If the authorities will not listen to us, we have no choice but to protest to bring the matter to the notice of the government. Recently, we heard that the project has been dropped. To make it clear that we are not against development, we request the concerned authorities and the government to decrease the road widening limit from 45 to 30 meters. We will also call for another meeting with Oscar Fernandes and MP Nalin Kumar in the coming days. If the NH authorities drop the project, we will have no choice but to protest against the authorities. We will co-operate with the NH authorities if they consider 30 meters as the limit for widening the road. The people of Kulshekar are united and will fight with the same spirit until justice is served.

Addressing the land owners, President of the Association Advocate Mariamma Thomas said, “In the road widening issue we have approached the district minister in-charge but we did not get any positive reply. But when we approached the MLA of South constituency, he took the matter seriously. Recently when we met MP Nalin Kumar Kateel he said that he will discuss the matter with the NH authorities. The government is supporting only the rich people but what about the 250 families who will lose their houses, if the land is acquired to widen the NH to 45 meters.”

Mariamma further said that we the association members would like to thank MP Nalin Kumar for assuring to do justice with us. Recently we also heard that the NH authorities have dropped the road widening project due to lack of co-operation from the people.

Member of the association Pratapchandra welcomed the gathering.