Udupi: Ajjarkadu Town hall which was the prime source of income for City council and was built at the cost of 4 crores in 2012 has been given over to private ownership under contract.
Earlier when it was under City council, even poor and middle class people could afford to use it for weddings and other functions on a rent just for Rs 10,000. But now after it has given to private ownership, they demand minimum rent of 40,000. Only rich people can afford to make use of it.
Now the City council is planning to build an open auditorium at a high cost near Beedinagudde. The auditorium is an alternative to the Adi Udupi, now VIP Helipad, which was used for political rallies. The work commenced in 2013 and Rs 2.48 crores have been spent already from CM’s fund and even after two years the work is still pending.
Already a huge stage has been constructed where one can find street dogs, drunken gangs and all other illegal activities going on. One can also find cigarettes, gutka packets and liquor bottles. Even the toilets are not kept clean and are full of grass. There is no compound wall, no security person and thus the building has been misused by all.
The work undertaken by the BJP government has been abruptly stopped since last one year. Neither the current Congress council members nor BJP members are interested to continue the work. Even if it gets completed the city council will rent it out to private persons on contract basis. But as the auditorium is not giving any reasonable profit, no one is willing to take it, thus putting Rs 2.48 crore amount spent by government to waste.
D Manjunathaiah, city council commissioner also confirmed that it will be given over to private ownership after completion of the pending work.
