MCC meeting lost in din

Chaos and confusion ruled the council meeting of Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) on Thursday, forcing Mayor R Lingappa to postpone the meeting.

Following the differences of opinion among the corporators, especially of the ruling BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) combine, the council also failed to decide over the conditions to facilitate Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board (KUWSDB) to take over the task of drinking water supply, in partnership with MCC.

Earlier, when the subject was taken up for discussion, corporators irrespective of party affiliations, raised their objections. Following this, the mayor had to adjourn the meeting twice.

However, the council remained inconclusive when it met for the third time. The meeting had assumed significance, as it had been convened after a section of the corporators had expressed their resentment for taking up the matter for discussion during a committee meeting held at the corporation a week ago. The irate corporators sought an explanation for the presence of Rangadhamaiah an engineer from KUWSDB in the meeting.

When mayor sought to clear the air, claiming that the officer was summoned to clarify the doubts if any that may arise during the meeting, Nandeesh Preetham, a BJP corporator, refused to accept the explanation. Another corporator M J Ravikumar from Janata Dal (Secular) sought clarity over the period of contract between KUWSDB and MCC over water supply.

The opposition Congress which had then remained a mute spectator till then, termed the corporators behaviour as an insult to mayor and trooped into the well of the house, only to exchange words with the corporators of ruling party Amid the din, some of the corporators made a vain bid to draw the attention of the council towards the worsening water crisis.

Swamy, a SDPI corporator, was holding a placard condemning the officials for their failure to ensure adequate water supply. Another corporator B V Manjunath from BJP alleged that the officias were passing the buck, instead of addressing the grievances in time. Ayub Khan, a Congress corporator said that water was being supplied once in four days at N R Mohalla.

A sitting Congress corporator who had lost to Janata Dal (Secular) nominee from ward 57 in the election held to MCC during March 2013, on Thursday made a comeback as a nominated corporator.

P Devaraj, a Congress candidate, had lost in his consecutive attempt to B M Nataraj from JD(S) by 493 votes during the polls. Devaraj took the cutomary oath along with fellow nominated corporators- H K Anantha, Raghuraje Urs, Ashok Kumar and H S Prakash.