Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (DV/SP)

Mangalore, Jul 31: The general session of the city corporation council which met on Wednesday July 30 has decided to reverse the hike of 15 percent affected on property tax during the period the city corporation was run by the administrator in the absence of a mayor.

The mayor announced at the meeting that property taxes will continue to be collected at earlier rates, and the excess amount if any found to have been paid by the property owners will be deducted from future dues.

Relating to malaria control, the city corporation has decided to impose penalty on the owners of buildings where breeding grounds for mosquitoes are found. The amount fixed for residential houses for this violation stands at Rs 500, Rs 5000 for commercial and multi-storied buildings, Rs 15,500 in case of under construction buildings, and Rs 5,000 for houses having multiple stories. The council gave its nod for making changes to the bylaw relating to these revisions.

Chief whip of the council, Shashidhar Hegde, said that initially, buildings where mosquito breeding centres are found will be served with notices, and inspection will be conducted within 15 days thereof. If no steps are taken to clear the breeding grounds, penalty will be imposed as per the bylaw. If the problem persists even thereafter, all the facilities extended to the building by the city corporation will be withdrawn, and building licence will be cancelled, he warned.

Reacting to complaints of street light maintenance in the city, the mayor ordered all these problems to be set right within a week failing which, he said the contractor would be replaced.

Commissioner's post: The tug-of-war between different factions continued on the issue of retaining earlier commissioner of the city corporation, Ajit Kumar Hegde Shanadi. Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner, A B Ibrahim, has handed over charge of this post to deputy commissioner, Gokuldas Nayak. This information was given by city mayor, Mahabala Maarla.

Prasanna, who was appointed in place of Shanadi, had reported on July 15, but he went on leave after oral instructions were received from Bangalore on the government's rethinking on the issue. As the government is yet to send a revised order, the deputy commissioner has asked deputy commissioner in the city corporation, Gokuldas Nayak, to discharge duties in place of the commissioner, Maarla said. The corporators, who raised this issue, wanted to know the reasons for the functioning of two commissioners here, and whether politics is involved with this issue.