The Mangaluru City Corporation gave an approval for a few development works during a special meeting on Wednesday.

The move was taken amid an uproar by the opposition councillors during the meeting that lasted 20 minutes.

The special meeting was chaired by Mayor Jacintha Vijay Alfred and witnessed commotion and chaos by the members of the opposition. The opposition leaders tore apart the agenda copies and entered the well of the House even as Chief Whip Shashidhar Hegde was reading out the agenda.

The opposition leaders shouted slogans against the Congress administration in the Corporation. As the meeting commenced, the opposition member Premananda Shetty alleged that the special meeting had been convened with an ulterior move. “Funds have not been earmarked to asphalt of the roads in all the 60 wards. There is water shortage too, in some wards of the City,” said the leader.

Opposition leader Sudheer Shetty demanded to be informed of the mandate that requires the Corporation to organise monthly meetings. “As the ruling Congress had convened only special meetings with no room for question hours, the party did not show any concern about the problems faced by the citizens of Mangaluru,” he alleged.

MCC Commissioner Dr H N Gopalakrishna said that he, along with the deputy commissioner (revenue) and the chief accounts officer, had been on election duty in Mandya and had returned to Mangaluru on Tuesday. The agenda for the ‘monthly meeting’ could not be prepared, explained the commissioner, to which, the opposition demanded to know who prepared the agenda for the special meeting, leading to a heated argument.

When the chief whip began reading the agenda, the opposition members raised an uproar and threw the agenda sheets before entering the well of the House.

Shashidhar Hegde told reporters that, as per the rules of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, council meetings should be convened every month. “It can be a general or a special meeting. As per the rule, the special meeting is being conducted today. It is left to the discretion of the Mayor to let the meeting have a question hour,” he explained.

“There were important agendas to be discussed in the meeting. The opposition did not give any scope for discussion. The development works to be initiated using funds under the SFC grants and the 13th Finance Commission General Performance grant were included in the agenda, which could have been discussed by the opposition,” said Hegde.
The opposition leaders, however, claimed that the agenda contained only in-anticipation approvals given by the Mayor.