Inchara Udupi
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Jun 1: The state government, through an order, has merged Kaup, Uliyargoly, and Mallar gram panchayats to form a single Kaup town municipality. With this, four revenue villages including Muloor will fall under the newly formed town municipality.
The issue of formation of municipality had become controversial after many expressed opposition to it, in anticipation of losing benefits accruing to rural folk, and expected hike in taxes.
Minister for urban development and district in-charge minister, Vinay Kumar, addressing a press conference here on Sunday May 31, said that administrative officer will be appointed to run the municipality till the people's representatives are elected through fresh election. 'The process of making appointment of engineers, officers and other staff, and floating of tenders etc will be set into motion soon. Kaup will be the headquarters of the new municipality, while sub-centres will be located in Mallar and Uliyargoly villages. All the processes will be completed as swiftly as possible,' he promised.
After the government issued notification about its intention on creation of the new municipality, duly giving time for filing of objections, the objections received were scrutinized by the deputy commissioner, who sent a report to the government. On the basis of this report, the government has issued gazette notification about the creation of this municipality after getting the nod from the governor, he stated.
The minister said that various grants including Rs 32 crore from urban development department for underground drainage, Rs 51 crore towards drinking water project, Rs 15 crore additional grant under 'Nagarothana' scheme, and for other schemes like disposal of garbage etc will be coming to the municipality. He expected the total grant so received to exceed Rs 100 crore. He said that Kaup would be developed into a model municipality through Kaup Development Planning Authority.
Sorake allayed the fear about additional taxes for citizens and loss of rural grace marks for students. He said that tax here is already more than the one prevailing in Saligrama town panchayat, and that the future tax burden would be decided by elected representatives. He added that educational facilities will be fortified further by bringing up a university centre and science centre at Balapu village nearby, where education right from Kindergarten to post-graduation would be provided.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee secretary, M A Gafoor, Kaup block Congress president, Navinchandra J Shetty, and various party leaders were present.