Absentee babus force postponement of meeting

Corporators stage a walk out in protest against absence of officials

The reason was the absence of most of the officers including the commissioner. Eventually, the Mayor had to adjourn the council, as the adamant councillors staged a walk out demanding postponing of the same.

As soon as the council convened, ruling party leader P Devaraj raised the issue of the absence of commissioner K S Raykar at the meeting. However, Mayor Pushpalatha Chikkanna defended saying that the commissioner had expressed his inability to attend the council owing to a workshop on heritage organised at another venue at the same time.

The commissioner had intimated in advance seeking permission, the mayor clarified. Moreover, the deputy commissioner of city corporation M N Dharmappa has been handed over the responsibility by the commissioner.

However, Devaraj who wasn’t ready to accept the answer wanted to know- if the workshop on heritage assumed significance for the officer, then why did the organisers keep corporators in dark? Apart from the commissioner, most of the officers-superintendent engineers (both MCC and JnNURM), assistant commissioners are also absent, he alleged.

Coming to his support another Corporator B L Bhyrappa mocked at deputy commissioner replacing the commissioner at the meeting. In an earlier occasion, the commissioner himself had expressed his animosity against the deputy commissioner. When the commissioner had been abroad on a tour recently, he had preferred to hand over the charge to MUDA Commissioner C J Betsurmath, instead of the deputy commissioner.

“The deputy commissioner has been curtailed from delivering the duties in his ambit too,” Bhyrappa alleged. Senior councillor H N Srikantaiah argued that the commissioner should give priority to the council first. Even if he has other engagements, he could have physically informed the meeting, rather than giving room for a debate.

Sandesh Swamy demanded the mayor to take adequate decision to rein in the officers.

However, the Mayor was still dithering to take a decision, but reminded the officers about taking prerequisite permission from the council before staying away from the same.
 But it couldn’t balm the corporators. One of the corporators chided the very words of the mayor as- reading out a lesson.

Enraged, a section of corporators staged a walk out as the repeated pleas made to postpone the meeting went unheard.

 It didn’t take much time for the mayor to announce that the meeting has been adjourned, thus bringing an end to the half-an-hour long dharna.

Earlier, the meeting scheduled at 11 am was adjourned for half-an-hour following lack of quorum.

Probe urged against Raykar

Even as the MCC is in dire financial straits, a corporator levelled a grave allegation against MCC commissioner K S Raykar of spending a whopping Rs 61 lakh towards the piece work of his upcoming official residence on the premises of Vani Vilas Water Works (VVWW).

Ruling party leader P Devaraj who made the revelation demanded the Mayor to write to the government to probe into the issue. The post of commissioner is permanent, but the person who holds the post is temporary. What was the necessity of spending such a huge amount? he questioned. However, his frequent demand to the mayor to write to the government seeking a detailed investigation into the contract went in vain.