Sweet-sour farewell for Mayor

Presenting a balance sheet on the mayor’s 11-month tenure, the Opposition members in the Council though appreciated him, called him a pawn in the hands of a few in the State government.

Corporators of the ruling party showered praises on him for laying a strong foundation of financial stability in the Palike, which is reeling under severe crisis.

Though the leader of Opposition in the Council M Nagaraj hailed Nataraj for being kind-hearted, he blamed him for not initiating any development work during his tenure.

He observed that leaders in the ruling party should have given more independence to the new mayor.

JD(S) corporator Padmanabha Reddy did not mince words while calling Nataraj a ‘rubber stamp mayor’ who was directly controlled and monitored by the BJP leaders.

However, Congress corporator Gunashekar came to Nataraj’s rescue by underlining the mayor’s lack of financial and executive powers. Moreover, an 11-month tenure was too short for any mayor to bring about an overall development in the City, he said.

Making an intervention, the ruling party corporator and Chairperson of Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance P N Sadashiva said the measures initiated by the mayor would bear fruits in the next few years.