Blasius D'Souza

Blasius M. D'Souza
Born (1938-02-22)22 February 1938
Mangalore, South Canara
Died 26 January 2008(2008-01-26) (aged 69)
Nationality Indian
Ethnicity Mangalorean Catholic

Blasius M. D'Souza (22 February 1938 – 26 January 2008) was an Indian politician from Mangalore. A member of the Indian National Congress from Mangalore, he was the first Roman Catholic minister in the Karnataka state government.

Biography

Blasius D'Souza was the son of AR D'Souza, a prominent businessman in Mangalore. He studied at St. Aloysius College, Mangalore, from where he graduated with a B.Com. degree in 1959. At St. Aloysius, he was president of the College Student's Union and also a member of the hockey team. He earned his L.L.B. from Siddhartha Law College, Mumbai, in 1961. He had five children, Anoop, Rohit, Sonia, Reema & Rovena. He hails from the Mangalorean Catholic community.[1]

Political career

Blasius D'Souza entered politics as a Mangalore City Council member in 1962 from Congress Party, where he served for 17 years. For seven years from 1972 to 1979 he was the Council President. He served as a District Chairman of Congress Committee in Dakshina Kannada district until recently. He was a Member of Legislative Council in Karnataka Legislature from 1980 to 1985 and represented Mangalore as a Member of Legislative Assembly for nine years. In the July 1991, he was appointed Law Minister of Karnataka in the Veerappa Moily government. He cleared an average of 25,00 files a month and created a record during his tenure as a minister. In November 1992, he was appointed Minister for Labour in a Cabinet Reshuffle, a position in which he served until 1994.

Death

Mr D'Souza died at 5:30 a.m. at the KMC hospital in Mangalore on 26 January 2008. His funeral was attended by Karnataka Congress leaders such as Veerappa Moily, Janardhana Poojary, B. Ramanath Rai, former ministers B. Nagaraja Shetty and B A Moideen, former MP Vinaykumar Sorake, local Congress leaders Ivan D'Souza and Naveen D'Souza among others. National politicians Oscar Fernandes and George Fernandes also attended.

Positions held

References

External links

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