Mangaluru : “Those who are participating in the Padayatra also have a responsibility to ensure that land acquisition is carried out by the state government. District In-charge Minister U T Khader should have taken a delegation to the Centre to sort out the hurdles in the road work,” said, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel.

Kateel said that the Congress had been engaged in a political gimmick in the name of Padayatra keeping in mind the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

He assured on Tuesday that the contractor company Larsen and Toubro (L&T) will resume the widening of the Addahole – B C Road stretch within a fortnight.

Kateel told reporters on Tuesday that the work had been stalled two months ago due to legal and technical problems.

“Due to the landslides during the monsoon in the implementation area, an additional 41-hectare land had to be acquired by the state government at Gundya. The acquisition had not been carried out at Kalladka to facilitate continuation of the work. The Centre has approved of the acquisition of the 41-hectare land near Gundya in addition to six kilometre at Kalladka. Now the state government should take up the acquisition work,” stressed Kateel.

He said that the patchwork of the road from B C Road to Maani too has been taken up and will be completed within 15 days.

The MP said that Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has directed the contractor to complete the four-laning of NH 66 from Talapady to Kundapur – including the flyovers at Thokkottu and Pumpwell (Mahaveera Circle) – by February-end for inauguration.

“Gadkari will also lay the foundation for four-laning of Mulki-Kateel-Bajpe-Kaikamba-Polali-B C Road-Melkar-Konaje- KC Nagara as well as the four-laning of NH 169 from Kulashekar to Karkala and Kulai jetty, which is being developed jointly by the NMPT, and the state and the Central governments,” he added.

Kateel said that the process of merger of banks was initiated by the UPA government and is continued by the present government.

“Vijaya Bank is a thing of prestige to the district. When the proposal on the merger of Vijaya Bank with Dena Bank and Bank of Baroda was put across in the Lok Sabha for approval, the Congress did not raise any objections to it. Further, the proposal was placed before the Finance Committee chaired by M Veerappa Moily, who also did not object to it. All those who staged a protest against merger of Vijaya Bank should meet both Moily and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to discuss the issue,” said the MP.

Speaking further, Kateel said, “A delegation of MPs including Shobha Karandlaje, Gopal Shetty and myself had appealed to the Union Finance Minister to retain the name of Vijaya Bank after its merger, to which, Jaitley has promised to look into the issue.”

The MP alleged that the protesters had not remembered Vijaya Bank while opposing the renaming of Light House Hill Road after Sundar Ram Shetty.

Kateel further said that all those who were defeated in the Assembly elections are engaged in a Padayatra from Nelyadi to B C Road.