Mangalore, Aug 21, 2014: The Infosys Technologies executive vice-president and Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund chairman Ramadas Pai slammed both the union and state government for the deplored roads across the city and blamed the governments for the poor growth of IT sector in Mangalore.
Addressing the media persons during a conference held at Hotel Ocean Pearl here on Wednesday August 20, Ramdas said, ‘Today, Karnataka IT exports have slipped to 34 percent from 37 percent and the state doesn’t seem to have bothered about the slip. Even though we have exported IT services worth Rs 1,75,000 crore last year the slip is a major set back,’ said Ramdas.
‘It is a tragedy that so called 100 percent literate Mangalore city contributes with not even 2 percent of Karnataka’s total IT exports. The government is not doing anything for the IT Park established at Mudipu. There is no water. Anyone who has back ache and travels on the roads, to go the IT park will surely get admitted to the hospital. Along with this even the road connecting to Kerala has become extremely worse. This region has been totally deprived of the government’s attention,’ said Ramdas.
To have submitted the recommendations for the state government on improvising the tourism in the state he said, ‘The government has already sanctioned Rs 66 crore for the development of beaches in Uttar Kannada, Dakshin Kannada and Udupi districts out of which about Rs 20 crore have been released to boost the beach tourism. The state government has also sent proposals to the union government for releasing funds for the development of roads connecting the beaches to the highways,’ said Ramdas.
‘Our beaches have to be latrine free. So toilets should be constructed next to the beaches to make this a reality. A lot of garbage is being thrown in the beach. That has to be removed. There should be an administrative mechanism to maintain our beaches. The Zila Panchayat or the concerned gram panchayat or any organization should be given the responsibility to keep them clean,’ said Ramdas.
Principal patron Mohandas Pai, Vishwa Konkani Kendra president Basti Vamn Shenoy, VKSSF secretary Praddep G Pai, VKSSF alumni association president Lenita Jenifer Menezes, Pallavi Prabhu, Royal Denzil Sequiera and others were present at the press meet.
Scholarship Distribution
In a function held at Raman Pai auditorium here by Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund (VKSSF) instituted by Vishwa Konkani Kendra distributed scholarships worth Rs 3 crore to more than 619 students of Konkani communities here on Wednesday August 20.
The VKSSF has distributed scholarships worth Rs 5 crore since 2010 to 4,500 students of engineering, MBBS, degree streams.