Spoke to CM Kumaraswamy Twice about Water Crisis, What did Congress Leaders Do? – MLA Vedvyas
Mangaluru: “Nowadays, the main issue in Mangaluru is that of water shortage. Recently, Congress leaders had raised some issues and I want to clarify those issues once and for all. Rs 160 crore had been sanctioned to Mangaluru district for the purpose of drinking water. In order to make full use of the Thumbay Dam, this project aimed to build water distribution pipelines so that the entire region could get water 24×7. Where is the money that the Congress took in the name of supplying water to the people 24×7? Some wards of the district do not have water in the summer season as well as in the monsoon season. Congress leaders said that they had increased the capacity of the Thumbay Dam from 4 meters to 7 meters. But this had actually happened when the BJP government was in power, and yet they have taken credit for it. Even though the new capacity of the Thumbay Dam is 7 meters, they couldn’t fill the dam up to its full capacity” said BJP MLA Vedvyas Kamath in a press conference held at the BJP Office, Kodialbail here, on April 29.
Addressing the mediapersons Vedvyas Kamath said, “Until recently, the state government, district ministers, and MLAs were all from the Congress Party. What were their efforts to fix the problem of water shortage? When I became the MLA, I met Chief Minister Kumaraswamy twice to talk about this issue. During the budget session, I wrote a letter to the Chief Minister’s Office asking him to include 120 crore rupees in the state budget for this purpose. I want to ask the Congress leaders, what efforts have you made to bring the 120 crore project to Mangaluru? The storage and supply of water from the dam is secondary. What projects have you brought to Mangaluru to fix this issue?”
Vedvyas further said, “Even though we have a 7-meter dam facility, it is unfortunate that we are still forced to ration the water supply. The Narendra Modi govt. has sanctioned a water project of 35.51 crore rupees to the Dakshina Kannada district. The agency has been fixed and it is in the stage of accepting tenders for the project. In a recent press conference, Congress leaders had said that Vedvyas Kamath should not play politics on issues of water supply. When I met people who were facing water shortages, I asked them if they had spoken to their local MCC corporator. They told me that the MCC corporators are avoiding responsibility by redirecting all the complaints to me since their party lost in the assembly elections. Congress leaders are complaining about the water distribution system. If they were so concerned about the issue, they could have called and spoken to the engineer. Do they need to be in power just to speak to the engineer? Does it mean that if they are not in power, they will stop working for the people?”
District Vice President of BJP Ravishankar, BJP corporator Premanand Shetty, Nitin Kumar, Ramesh Bhat, and others were also present.