Lack of Funds from Central Govt Cause for delay in Extension of Fishing Dock in Bunder – J R Lobo
Mangaluru: “Recently, a news daily had published that the extension work of the Fishing dock in Bunder had stopped. The former president of the Fishing Development Board Nitin Kumar had stated that the 3rd phase of the Fishing dock extension was supposed to be completed by 2015 but due to the negligence of the government, it was not possible to be completed. The central government did not sanction the allocated funds to complete the work. Since the Central Government sanctioned only Rs 13 crores, due to lack of funds, the 3rd phase extension work of the Fishing dock in Bunder could not be continued. It is because of the negligence of the central government that the development of the fishing dock has been stopped,” said the former MLA, J R Lobo in a press meet held at the DCC office Mallikatta here, on June 23.
Addressing the mediapersons, Lobo said, “When Pramod Madhwaraj was the Fisheries minister, he had approached the central minister eight times for the release of funds without any success. The Central Government did not even bother to release the funds. In 2010, the estimate of the 3rd phase of the extension of Fishing dock was Rs 57.60 crores. The central government had agreed to provide Rs 43.20 crore, with the remaining Rs 14.40 crore to be borne by the state government.”
Lobo further said, “In 2010, the 3rd phase of the Extension of the Fishing dock was sanctioned by the state and central governments and the work was started. But since some people had filed a case in the Green Tribunal, the project was halted. In 2017, when the Green Tribunal gave the verdict to continue the work, the cost of the project had increased and was estimated to be Rs 98.26 crores. We had already sent the re-estimation to the central government but there was no response from the government. We have already spent Rs 51.89 crores for the project and the Central government has paid only Rs 13 crores. Since the cost of the project has increased due to unavoidable circumstances, the central government should pay their share accordingly. Now, the state government is finding it difficult in continuing the project. A delegation from the Fishermen community had gone to Delhi to request the government to release the funds for the extension of the dock but have not received any positive response.”
“The state government has already spent an additional Rs 38.89 crores for the project than what was agreed upon. The central government should pay its share. But it is not ready to pay it, and we had spent that amount thinking that we would receive the promised funds from them. The central government’s attitude shows that it is not interested to release funds for the development of the Fisheries dock in Bunder. The central government has failed to keep its promise and has done injustice to the fishermen community.”
Former Mayor Mahabala Marla, Congress leader Taranath Kallige, Corporator Sabitha Misquith, T K Sudheer and others were also present.