Consumers yet to pay water bills worth Rs 15.5 cr to MCC

Commissioner K N Vijay Prakash confirmed this at the general meeting of the MCC. “The Corporation has launched a drive to recover the dues, towards which four squads have been formed. Water supply to those with pending bills will be strictly disconnected,” he said.

Prior to this, an allegation of Opposition leader Ashok Kumar D K that former mayor M Shanker Bhat “has a share” with Prasanna Technologies, a private agency that looks after spot billing of water supply, resulted in heated arguments between the members of the ruling party and the Opposition.

Making a statement at the Council, corporator Deepak Poojary urged that the private agency should be dropped from the responsibility for it has not been discharging its duties properly resulting in huge amount of pending bills.

Another councillor Harinath supported this and demanded a probe. Amidst this, the Opposition leader alleged that Shanker Bhat had a share with the agency while assigning it the responsibility.

The ruling party members stick to the demand that Ashok Kumar should withdraw his statement or apologise or prove his allegation with proof. The arguments stalled the proceeding for 15 minutes.

Senior councillors Harinath, James D’Souza and Mariamma Thomas drew the attention of the House towards the increasing trend of Malaria in the city much before the rainy season. An official from the Health department confirmed this stating that 46 cases of Malaria have been detected in NITK campus alone recently.

James D’Souza alleged that the Health wing of the corporation is totally dead while Mariamma Thomas complained that the fogging personnel never turned up in her ward in the recent times.

Several corporators pointed out the absence of officials at the meeting, particularly from the MUDA. Responding at this, the Commissioner warned that the officials would have to face disciplinary actions if they continue their habit in future.

He also warned the officials that if they make any unnecessary delays in forwarding the files especially those of 22.5 per cent scheme of the SC/STs, they will face stringent action.