61 issues passed without discussion in CMC meet

Council members oppose approval to projects for Devikas ward

City Municipal Council members raised objections to CMC’s former president Devika’s decision of issuing tenders to more number of projects for the ward she represents.

“Devika, representing ward no 28, had not brought the issue for discussion, but had taken one-sided decision to call tender for eight projects worth Rs 40 lakh in her ward. This is against the CMC rules. So, these tenders should not be approved,” demanded member K P Mahesh.

Members Hanumatharayappa, Vishwanathagowda, Yousuf, Mehboob Pasha and others also alleged that these projects would just help Devika’s ward and sought the in charge president of the Council to disapprove of these projects.

Trying to defend her action, Devika said that, “Even in ward number 15, approval has been given for three unnecessary projects. In that case, I do not agree with these projects being given approval.”

She also took engineers to task. On this, in-charge president Aslam Pasha asked her not to speak further and requested the members to give approval to projects in the ward Devika represents.

Meanwhile, members Vasudeva, Manjunath and others also requested to pass the development projects in every ward. Later, approval was given to all the projects proposed for various wards.

Approval was also given to 21 projects to fill pits on roads in 35 wards in the City. Rs 5 lakh each was allotted for each project. CMC members Rajanna and Lakshminarasimha raised objection to this and said that, “Contractors should take the responsibility of maintaining the roads for three years. It is not right to fill the pits of the roads which are in bad shape. These roads should be laid again.”

It was decided to fill the pits of the roads in good condition only. Only four issues were approved after discussion. Rest 61 projects were passed without any discussion.
M P Mahesh raised the issue of service tax levied on educational institutes. But the matter was decided to be taken up at the general meeting of the CMC.

Meanwhile, Pasha announced that Rs 9 lakh will be allotted under IDSMT scheme and Rs one lakh for maintaining streetlights. He also said that all the projects will be launched within 15 days.

Speaking on other issues, some of the municipal members asked information about the new staff for CMC, as they were not introduced and were not even responding to any phone calls. Devika questioned if the Government had the authority to appoint staff to CMC directly.

Answering her query, Commissioner Narayanappa said that, “The government is releasing grants to the CMC. But as there is a lack of staff to maintain it, the government has deputed staff for four posts including an executive engineer.” Narayanappa said that the Government has the authority to do so.

Legislative Council member M R Hulinaikar, Standing Committee member Nayaz Ahmed and other were present on the occasion.

‘Withdraw complaint’

The last CMC commissioner Rohini Sindhuri had lodged a complaint with the police that the motor pump was stolen from a borewell in City. But it was proved that the motor pump was there in the borewell. Still, she had not withdrawn her complaint, said member K P Mahesh.

Walkout

CMC member Tarunesh alleged that the officers have not implemented the project approved in the last meeting. Moreover, a bill of Rs 70 lakh has been generated for the work which has not started. He also complained that his ward was being neglected and demanded clarification from the officers concerned.

Meanwhile, another member Lakshminarayan posed another question. This angered Tarunesh and he walked out of the meeting, saying, his question was not answered.