While Opposition leader T M Ayyappa, Congress members Abdul Razak and Sathish suggested that the construction of the bus stand must be taken up by the Council itself, remaining members said that the work must be handed over to private company on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.

Addressing the gathering, Ayyappa said that though Bangalore Agriculture University handed over the said 3 acre land to the Council, the land documents have not yet been transferred. Further, the Khata of the land has not been transferred and in such a case, how correct is it to hand over the works to private company, he questioned.

“Since the bus stand maintenance will be given for private company for a period of 30 years under BOT, there will be no income to the Council. Hence, it is advisable that Council itself builds the bus stand,” said Abdul Razak and Sathish.

MLA Appachu Ranjan responding to the opinion of the opposition members, said that the Central and the State Government are handing over most of the projects to private hands. It is the same in foreign countries as well where airports, bus stands and railway stations are all constructed by private companies. “Lack of labourers is one of the major problem in Kodagu. In such as case, it is better to hand over the works to private company,” Ranjan said and added that priority could be given to Kodavas.

He said that as far as Khata conversion is concerned, he has already spoken to Deputy Commissioner. He assured the members that there will be no problem in khata conversion.

Ruling out the allegation that a sum of Rs 12 lakh has been received by the private contractors, Ranjan said that nobody needs to pay any heed to such rumours. Council President P D Ponnappa said that since the MLAs and Government is of BJP, there will be no problems with regard to Khata conversion. He said that with the help of the MLA, conversion will be done in 15 days.

Council Commissioner K Srikanth Rao said that the decision of handing over the construction to private party will be sent to Directorate of Municipal Administration. Once the Directorate approves the same, permission will be sought from the Government and agreement will be done with the private party.

He said that a Bangalore based company and Mysore based company have come forth to construct the bus stand at a cost of Rs 17.40 crore and Rs 13.80 crore respectively.
Standing Committee President T S Prakash, Members Unni Krishna, Muneer Ahmed, K T Baby Mathew and others were present.