Mangaluru: The Mangaluru City Corporation Council on Wednesday has passed a resolution opposing the controversial Yettinahole project without any discussion.
Corporators Roopa D Bangera, Abdul Rauf and Abdul Latheef had submitted a proposal to pass a resolution against the project in the Council.
Just as Mayor Jacintha Vijay Alfred was to read the resolution, the opposition members demanded a discussion on the issue. The Mayor did not allow any debate on the matter, which led to chaos and uproar with the Opposition and ruling party member’s exchanging allegations against each other. Opposition Leader Sudheer Shetty said, “The resolution could have been passed by discussing the issue in the last meeting itself.”
Meanwhile, Corporator Roopa D Bangera, from the Opposition party, said that she had raised the issue in the last Council meeting and the ruling members had stated that as it was a State government project, a resolution cannot be passed against the project.”In such a scenario, how can the members place the proposal now? The ruling party is politicising the issue on the Yettinahole project,” she said.
Deputy Mayor Purushotham Chitrapura said that he was the one who had questioned the project in the national Green Tribunal in Chennai, a year ago.
On the other hand, CPM corporator Dayananda Shetty said that the project was a question of quenching the thirst of the parched districts. “One should not politicise the issue. There is a need to have a discussion on the project”, he said while supporting the project.
Patchwork of roads
Corporators Premananda Shetty and Naveen D’Souza said that the asphalted roads had developed huge potholes in major places of the city and many interior roads are too damaged to be travelled on.
Despite the fact that there was less rain this year and no rain in the past one month, the corporation had not bothered and has failed to fill up the worsened potholes in the city, they alleged.
Corporator Tilak Raj said that in spite of handing over a tender to the contractor, work on the road in his ward had not been started for the last one month.
Responding to it, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Town Planning, Deepak Poojary said that he had directed the officials to prepare an estimate for the patchwork on the pothole-ridden roads within three days and measures will be taken to fill the potholes within a week.
Garbage collection
Opposition leader Sudheer Shetty said that Antony Waste Handling Cell Pvt. Ltd had failed to carry out door-to-door collection of garbage effectively in the city. “They are not collecting the garbage regularly from commercial complexes. Instead of garbage, mud is being collected by them to increase the weight of the garbage”, he said.
In the last seven months the MCC has reportedly paid a sum of Rs 12.78 crore to the Antony Waste Handling. “Instead of improving their services and reaching out to all, the agency is engaged in blackmailing the authorities and also has published an article in newspapers regarding this”, he added.
Supporting his views, Standing Committee on Finance and Taxation Chairman, Harinath said that the agency was misleading the public on pending dues by the MCC. The agency has failed to carry out street sweeping and grass cutting in all the wards.
Mahabala Marla said that an official should be designated to monitor the work of the agency. Dayanand Shetty urged the MCC to blacklist the agency.
