Enough scope for coastal Karnataka in Budget: KCCI

The Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has said that Dakshina Kannada has enough scope of taking advantage of most of the new proposals in the Karnataka Budget for 2021-22.

Isaac Vas, President of KCCI, said that the proposal to establish an advanced biotech research centre in Mangaluru will encourage fishermen in the region to take up sea-weed cultivation. The cultivation of sea-weed has tremendous export potential and employment and wealth generation opportunities for the coastal region, he said.

The Karnataka Budget has allocated ₹2 crore for 2021-22 for the establishment of the ‘Advanced Biotech Innovation Centre for Aqua-Marine’ in Mangaluru. The centre aims to encourage the production of light food items utilising the bioactive compounds available from fish and sea weed.

He said the State government’s decision to allocate ₹66 crore for the establishment of a plastic park at Ganjimath in Mangaluru will help accelerate the project implementation. This project is being taken up along with participation from the Centre.

‘Fillip to tourism’

Referring to the budget proposal to develop waterways between Mangaluru and Panaji in Goa and to develop five waterways of the State, he said such a move can give a fillip to tourism in this much-neglected sector of coastal Karnataka.

On the proposal to amend the Land Revenue Act to simplify the process of conversion of agricultural land, Vas said this move will be of help for sustainable industrial projects in the land-starved Dakshina Kannada district.

Welcoming the Budget proposal to introduce a Bill to reconstitute Coastal Development Authority as Coastal Development Board, he hoped that this Board would take up development of the coastal region as the region’s requirements in various sectors are different from the rest of the State.

However, he said, the capital expenditure for the year has been restricted to ₹44,237 crore out of a total budget outlay of ₹2.46 lakh crore.

“It was expected that a sizeable portion of the budget would be used for capital expenditure so that this extra money would finally reach people’s hand, and in turn it would spur up demand and enable to the state’s economy to pick up after the damage done due to Covid and the lockdown that followed,” he added.