Coastal Development Authority to be reconstituted as Board, says Karnataka Minister

The Karnataka government proposes to reconstitute the Coastal Development Authority (CDA) as a statutory board, state Minister for Planning, Programme Coordination and Statistics D Sudhakar has said.

The proposal will be mooted in the assembly session beginning on Monday, he told reporters here on Saturday after a review meeting of the CDA at the deputy commissioner's office here.

Sudhakar said conversion of the authority into a statutory body with a budgetary allocation of Rs 2,500 crore was one of the election promises made by the Congress to the people in the coastal region.

He said with the constitution of a board, Chief Minister Siddarmaiah can set apart necessary funds from the state budget. The views of the MLAs from the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada will be taken into account while undertaking development works, he said.

MLCs Manjunath Bhandary and Harish Kumar, CDA secretary Pradeep D'Souza and other officials took part in the meeting.