H Anjaneya arrives to Mururu Koraga Colony to celebrate New Year
Kundapur: H Anjaneya, Minister for Social Welfare, arrived to Mururu Koraga Colony in Kalthodu Gram Panchayat limits under the Bydoor Legislative constituency of Kundapur Taluk to celebrate the New Year on Saturday December 31.
The minister earlier inaugurated the Moraji Desai Hostel School at Heranjalu in Byndoor and later arrived to Mururu Koraga Colony.
The Koraga colony villagers along with Marli Koraga welcomed the minister by garlanding him with forest flowers. There after the minister was taken in a procession to the public function.
The public function began with Kranthi Geethe of the Koraga tradition. Appanna Shetty president of the Gram Panchayat Kalthodu welcomed the gathering. H Anjaneya, Minister for Social Welfare inaugurated the public programme by beating the Drums.
Speaking on the occasion minister Anjaneya said that he has completed his stay in the villages in Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Chamarajnagar, Mysuru, Chikkamagaluru and currently he is taking up the last task in Udupi. He added that he would stop his Grama Vastvaya programme and look into the effective implementation of the projects that are already announced.
Emphasizing on the road connectivity the minister said that there is an urgent requirement of transport facilities for the development of any community, the minister added, developing roads is essential as it is the only way out to bring the tribal, especially the Koraga community into the mainstream of the society. He also expressed his discontent against the forest department for blocking the development work in the adjacent areas connecting forest.
The minister added that he would not announce any additional package in Udupi as the state government has already released Rs 83 crore for the development projects of the Koraga communities of which Rs 29 crore is already spent on the various programmes. He also assured of urging the Chief Minister to hike the unit cost of the house construction to Rs 4.5 lakh as against the existing Rs two lakh which is insufficient. He also said that the Koraga community is too poor to bear the expenses and are struggling to make ends meet.
Expressing his apprehensions over the decreasing number of Koraga community people, the minister said that the primitive tribes are slowly decreasing in number owing to the conflicts and violence and most recently due to the superstitious beliefs. The increasing superstitious beliefs have resulted in the diminishing of the Koraga community populace. He said infusing scientific thinking among the Koraga community is the need of the hour. He also stressed that educational and socioeconomic empowerment of the tribal is the need of the hour. Third party inspection would be conducted for the reimbursement of medical bills issued by the recognized hospitals by the government owing to the allegations against the fraud done in the bills by the hospitals.
Udupi district minister in-charge Pramod Madhwaraj, Byndoor MLA Gopal Poojary, Deputy Commissioner Venkatesh, ZP CEO Priyanka Mary Francis, Assistant commissioner Kundapur Shilpa Nag, Additional DC Anuradha and others were present.