Smart City becomes a reason for chaos at MCC council meet

Cong corporator finds fault in MP's claims; BJP members protest

Days after Mangaluru made it to the list of four cities in the State to be developed as ‘Smart City’, the ambitious project became a reason for pandemonium at the council meeting of Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) on Thursday.

As soon as the meeting was convened, Opposition leader in the MCC Roopa D Bangera from the BJP thanked all the elected representatives, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and mainly the people of coastal city, as the city had not been identified in the first list of cities.

Corporator Mahabala Marla from the ruling Congress party was miffed at BJP’s claims and expressed a feeling that ‘Mangaluru bagged the project this time owing to the influence of MP on urban development ministry’.

Even as Marla was making his point, without taking the name of Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, the peeved BJP corporators raised objections, only to be challenged by the former who showed a copy of a newspaper as reference.

The BJP corporators, led by the opposition leader, trooped into the well of the house and registered their protest with the mayor, before returning to their seats. Marla still questioned the veracity behind the MP’s statement that the city will receive Rs 40,000 crore funds in the next 20 years. “The information is misleading as the implementation period of the project is five years. How many times can a person utter lies?” Marla questioned the MP’s statement.

MLC Ivan D’Souza, who was at the meeting, said that the works are yet to commence in the cities identified in the first list. Moreover, following the recent announcement of Mangaluru finding its name in the second list, demands are pouring in to take up various works under the same project.

Later, Mayor K Harinath fretted over the possibility of diversion of regular grants received by the MCC under the 14th Finance Commission, State Finance Commission (SFC) and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transport (Amrut) among others towards Smart City. If it becomes a reality, it will be difficult to take up regular works, he added.

The mayor also reminded Roopa Bangera that she did not take the name of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah while expressing gratitude to every other leaders for the Smart City project.