Capt. Brijesh Chowta, Dakshina Kannada MP, alleged here on Tuesday that unable to tolerate the coastal belt emerging the citadel of Hindutva the State government has created an artificial scarcity of laterite stones and sand in the district.

Speaking at a dharna held by the BJP in front of the mini-Vidhana Soudha to seek a solution to the scarcity of two construction materials, Capt. Chowta said that though Dinesh Gundu Rao, Minister in charge of Dakshina Kannada, and U.T. Khader, Mangaluru MLA and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, are aware of the scarcity, no solution has been worked out.

A delegation of BJP legislators which met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in this connection a fortnight ago apprised him of the problems being faced by people and other stakeholders of the construction industry. But the government is yet to respond.

"How long will the government take to relax rules pertaining to extraction of laterite stones and sand," Capt. Chowta asked, and said that Mr. Rao and Mr. Khader should take responsibility for the scarcity.

Padyatra

Speaking at the venue, MLA for Mangaluru City South D. Vedavyasa Kamath said that the party will take out a padayatra from Mangaluru to Sullia via B.C. Road if the government did not address the scarcity at the earliest.

The district in-charge Minister did not hold any meeting in the city and consult the MLAs to find out a solution to the scarcity, he said.

President of Dakshina Kannada unit of the BJP Satish Kumpala said that the BJP will intensify its agitation if the government did not address the shortage immediately. The construction workers are in dire straits without job for the past four months.

Y. Bharat Shetty, Umanath Kotian, Rajesh U Naik, Harish Poonja and Bhagirathi Murulya, all BJP MLAs, Kishore Kumar Puttur, MLC and Capt. Ganesh Karnik and K. Monappa Bhandary, former MLCs and Premananda Shetty and Sudhir Shetty Kannur, former Mayors of Mangaluru took part in the dharna.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister, Mr. Kumpala and others said that as the extraction of laterite stones has come to a standstill in the district, in addition to construction workers, it has affected civil engineers, transporters, painters, cement traders, those operating hardware shops, traders who deal with granite and marbles who are stakeholders of construction industry.

The government hiking the royalty for extracting laterite stones from ₹97 per tonne to ₹282 has affected the extracton. The government should simplify the permit conditions for it. The State should find out a solution for resuming sand extraction in Coastal Regulation Zone areas, the memorandum said.

Unable to tolerate growth of Hindutva, Congress govt creates artificial shortage of laterite stones, sand in DK, says Capt. Brijesh Chowta