Greenhorn Dy Mayor faces volatile Council

In the absence of the Mayor S K Nataraj, who is ill, N Dayanand took the Mayor’s seat to conduct the proceedings of the house.

However, it was a baptism by fire for the 27-year-old as the Opposition raised the issue of massive work codes scams which took place when the Palike was under administration, apart from the huge land scams in the State under the BJP rule.

The house was adjourned for half an hour after the Congress and JD(S) staged a walkout. Proceedings began at 12 pm with the Deputy Mayor appealing that the issues at hand be discussed.

The issue of a stalled infrastructure project connecting Mysore Road with Bapujinagar on account of the hurdles in acquiring the land in the area was taken up. MLC Ashwath Narayana raised objections over the disparity over the payment of compensation by the BBMP towards eight houses who were losing their property. 

“While the BMRCL is paying Rs 4,000 per sq ft in most areas where it has acquired land, BBMP wants to pay only Rs 900 per sq ft that was applicable three years ago. The current rate is Rs 1,800 per sq ft as per the SR Rate prescribed by the State Government,” he said.

Most corporators felt the need to revise the compensation rates for citizens parting with their properties.

“Better compensation should be given to people parting with their land towards infrastructure projects across most parts of Bangalore which have been stalled for quite some time,” said M Nagaraj, Leader of the opposition Congress Party.

Corporators from DJ Halli and Kushalnagar demanded a separate sub-division of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) for their area as there has been lot of complaints of sanitary pipelines going bust.  

The BWSSB official present at the Council assured the corporators that their problems will be resolved latest by Monday.