Mangaluru: Mangaluru South MLA D Vedavyas Kamath alleged that the previous Congress administration in the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) dashed the dreams of 930 poor people, who hoped to own their house as it planned to construct a residential complex on a deemed forest land.

Addressing the reporters at the district BJP office on Wednesday, November 6, Kamath said, “The MCC had planned to construct a residential complex ‘G plus 3’ in Shakthinagar on deemed forest land, and even laid the foundation stone for the project. Without initiating any work, former MLA J R Lobo had organised a programme to hand over title deeds to 930 beneficiaries at the Town Hall. However, the MCC has no right to undertake any development work on deemed forest lands. Without receiving clearance from the forest department, the MCC has committed a major mistake by planning to construct a residential complex for the poor people. Now, their dream of owning their own house has been crashed as the project cannot be undertaken. Former MLA Lobo and the MCC should be held responsible for dashing the dreams of the poor people.”

“If the BJP is voted to power in the MCC, it will initiate an honest effort to fulfil the dreams of those poor people. As the Supreme Court’s verdict on deemed forest land would be a hurdle to continue the same project on the same land, we will verify if the project can be started at other places,” he said.

BJP leaders Ravishankar Mijar, Bhaskarchandra Shetty, Nithin Kumar, Prabha Malini, Sanjay Prabhu and Srinivas Shetty were present.