Protest against irregular water supply today

Mayor should retract his statement about using force to collect taxes

Briefing media persons on Wednesday he said a protest will be held on Thursday against the BWSSB for irregular water supply.

Also, discussion on water-related issues will be held in the Palike Council meeting on April 30, he added.

Irregularity

Maladministration in asphalting of roads and irregularity in buying medicines to BBMP hospitals has been found. Moreover, works were assigned to different departments without any prior notifications.

For example, work of creating bus shelters was transferred to the BMTC from BBMP. Also, occupancy certificates were issued by the BDA instead of the BBMP, he said.

Condemning the newly-elected Mayor’s statement in an English daily about using police
force to collect tax from the public, Nagaraj said, "There is a mode of collecting tax. We  demand that the Mayor retract his statement about using police force to collect taxes."

The BBMP gets an annual grant of Rs 320 crore from the State government and Rs 750 crore from property tax. Despite these, BBMP had taken Rs 1,475 crore as loan from 10 different banks. In addition to these the BBMP has to pay a sum to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore to the contractors.

" The BBMP’s expenditure is more than the sum allocated to it. Moreover, the body lacks accountability and has no plans about how it is going to repay the loan,” observed Nagaraj.