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Mangaluru, December 19: Harikrishna Bantwal who is contesting as an independent candidate for upcoming MLC elections; addressed a press meet in the city on Saturday, December 19th and said, the Congress will have to face serious consequences in zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat elections after this MLC election.
Speaking further, he said, if the Congress gets wiped away in Dakshina Kannada district, it is not because of any other party but because of leaders like Oscar Fernandes and Vinay Kumar Sorake.
Harikrishna Bantwal said, he would meet all the panchayat members in all the 13 constituencies. Vinay Kumar Sorake and Oscar Fernandes are threatening the panchayat members by saying that the party can easily identify to whom they vote for. Criminal action should be taken against them for making such statements, he said.
In congress, there is no internal democracy in Congress and no opportunity for new faces. There is a wide generation gap. People should teach a good lesson to Oscar and Sorake, he said.
Harikrishna Bantwal speaking about his plans if he were to be elected MLC; said that, if the voters elect me as MLC I will raise my voice against the Yettinahole drinking water project and try to stop it. I will also urge the government to rise the monthly honorarium to Rs 2,000 for gram panchayat members, for Rs 3,000 for vice-president and Rs 5,000 for president. Honorariums to taluk panchayat, municipal council, town panchayat and municipal corporation members should be hiked to Rs 5,000 and their presidents should get Rs 10,000 and vice-presidents Rs 7,000 along with travelling allowances, he said.
Further he said, I will also urge the government to sanction a grant of Rs one crore to each taluk panchayat and Rs 15 lakhs per member as development fund. The zilla panchayat and corporation members should get Rs 10,000 per month, and the president or mayor Rs 30,000 and deputy mayor and vice-president Rs 20,000. Only the gram panchayat members can address the problems of the people, hence their honorarium should be increased, he opined.
In order to bring all the issues to the attention of the government, the voters should give their first preference to me, said Harikrishna Bantwal.
