Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (DV)
Mangaluru, Jun 2: Opposition leader in Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) Sudhir Shetty of BJP on Tuesday June 2 hit out at the ruling party over the stalling of Town Hall renovation work and said that it was a relfection of the failure of the MCC administration.
Addressing a press meet here, Sudhir Shetty said, "No development work is going on in the MCC from the past four months. On September 19, 2014, the Town Hall was closed for renovation and the then mayor Mahabala Maarla had said it would be inaugurated on December 26, 2014 to mark the 50 years of Town Hall.
"The renovation was planned on a budget of Rs 4 crore and work was handed over to the Nirmiti Kendra. In the general meeting of the council held on September 29, 2014, Rs 99.75 lac was approved for the first phase and the work was started, and another Rs 98 lac was approved in a meeting held on October 29, 2014.
"But on November 26, 2014, president of Nirmiti Kendra said that he could not finish the work due to shortage of technical experts. Also, only work worth Rs 30 lac has been completed out of Rs 99.75 lac in the first phase. No other work has been done," he said.
"When we question about this in the MCC meetings, there is no satisfactory answer. All in all, theatre artistes and others in the city are finding it difficult to host cultural events," he added.
"We held a protest in the last meeting on May 30 also. In future we will intensify our protest if the work is not completed soon," he warned.
"The condition of Town Hall has become like a dumpyard. There is no proper review meeting to solve the issue. Though monsoon is about to start, the work is far from complete. The mayor is acting like a rubber stamp," he said.
"This is complete failure of administration in the MCC. During BJP's tenure, in the second phase of work under Rs 100-crore CM's grant, 77 out of 110 works were completed at a cost of Rs 29 crore. Still 33 works and Rs 71 crore are remaining. In the third phase under CM's grant, no work has started and Rs 100 crore is lying unspent.
"This is because the district incharge minister (Ramanath Rai) is not holding review meetings with the MCC. During BJP's tenure, the grant for development works for each corporator was increased from Rs 10 lac to Rs 25 lac, but after Congress came to power, it was reduced to Rs 15 lac," Sudhir Shetty said.
"The MCC administration has betrayed the people by increasing the property tax by 15 percent and in also the solid waste management tax. Under Kudcemp project, Rs 380 crore was taken as loan from ADB in first phase for water supply and underground drainage works, but the work has not been completed yet. A meeting was called recently to seek approval for another ADB loan of Rs 160 crore for waters works and Rs 120 crore for underground drainage work in the second phase. We strongly oppose this as the loan will burden the people," he said.
Addressing the press meet, MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik said, "Town Hall is a cultural centre. We demand that the district incharge minister, the MLAs and the mayor make alternative arrangements to host cultural activties in the city. Development works have been lagging behind because of internal conflicts between Ramanath Rai, the MLAs and others. They should sort it out and provide alternative arrangements till the work on Town Hall is complete."
Asked whether the opposition was satisfied with the functioning of the MCC commissioner Hephsiba Rani Korlapati, he said, "Yes we are satisfied with her work, but she has to respect corporators."