Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (AM)

Mangaluru, Mar 6: With his tenure drawing to a close, mayor Harinath on Monday, March 6 thanked all his associates, members and others in helping him implement several plans for the development of the city successfully.

Listing out his achievements in a press meet at circuit house, Harinath said, "Mangaluru City Corporation turned into a people-friendly organisation during my tenure. To help the cause, we planned to start three zonal offices at Suratkal, Kadri and Lalbagh. While the office at Suratkal has already been inaugurated, the other two will start functioning within this month.

"Mangaluru being listed under the Smart city project is due to the continuous efforts of MCC. The city being declared open defecation-free also happened during my tenure. Several development works like market projects in various places of the city also happened during the last one year," he added.

Harinath also revealed the fact that there was a steep decrease in cases of malaria in the city. "There is a decrease of almost 45 percent in malaria cases during the last six months," he said.

"MCC is planning to install LED bulbs to all the street lights. We would be starting from the airport road. Ten acres of land have been acquired at Vamanjoor to dispose waste and a few acres at Kunjathbail to dispose debris. A tripartite agreement is being worked upon to deposit wages of pourakarmikas directly into their bank accounts. A special thanks to media for helping MCC to spread awareness on water conservation last year when Mangaluru was almost under the threat of drought. I wanted to make Mangaluru a plastic-free zone during my tenure which I could not. That is one thing which I regret. We visited school and distributed 15,000 cloth bags to raise awareness. If people continue to support us, I am sure we will be make the city completely free of plastic," he added.

"I thank the state government, district in-charge minister, MLAs J R Lobo and Mohideen Bawa, deputy commissioner K G Jagadeesha and all the members of MCC who helped me in my work.

In reply to a question about the present Town Hall nexus, Harinath said that suggestions should be made by people so that solutions can be found for the existing problems.

MCC commissioner Mohammed Nazeer, MCC chief whip Shashidhar Hegde, corporators Sabitha Misquith, Appi, Kavitha Sanil and others were present.