Water scarcity: Bangarpet TMC resolves to sink 20 more borewells

The general body meeting of the Council held here on Friday witnessed heated debate over drinking water shortage problem.As soon as the meeting commenced, councillors cutting across party lines sought information on the steps taken to address acute water scarcity in the town. Councillor Suhail insisted the president to inform the meeting on all the measures taken up to tackle the crisis. Most the councillors too joined the issue.
However, a verbal duel ensued between Suhail and the president Shamsuddin Babu and went even to the extent of a scuffle. The president warned of send the member out of the meeting. Suhail, however, walked out of the meeting. The efforts by former president K M Narayanaswamy, members Chandra Reddy, Shivakumar and Chandrappa to bring Suhail back into the meeting.

Peace brokered
Pandemonium prevailed in the meeting as another councillor Velmuruga took the president to task for behaving rudely with the members. Chaos prevailed for a while and order was restored with K M Narayanaswamy appealing the members to respect the position of the president and not to waste the precious time of the meeting.

It was decided to construct a electric crematorium at a cost of Rs 20 lakh, making khata for the site allotted to Fire Service Station, earmark Rs 30 lakh for uniform to the staff and to issue title deeds to the hut dwellers.

High-mast lamps
The councillors took exception to the proposal on installing high-mast lamps at five places in the town. They were of the opinion that there was no need for the lamp since there would be no power at all. Narayanaswamy intervened in the discussion and said that it costs Rs five lakh to install a high-mast lamp. Thus the proposal to install five such lamps would be a costly affair and it could be taken up with the funds available under MP’s Local Area Development Scheme.

However, the president was not spared off the attack. Councillor R Chandrappa alleged that approval has not been sought to call tenders for utilisation of money available under Chief Minister’s Fund and State Finance Commission. All the members soon joined the issue. The president defended himself saying that it was “urgent.”

The meeting also resolved to take a delegation to the Chief Minister, seeking more grants for addressing the water scarcity in the town. It was decided to take the delegation under the leadership of the local legislator, within April 23.

Councillor Premalatha said that the residents of Gandhi Nagar have expressed their reservation to name the Gandhinagar road on N Muniswamy Gowda and Basappa. She insisted that the road need not be named on any one. The proposal was dropped after a lengthy discussion.

Local legislator Narayana-swamy suggested that any issue that need to be discussed in the meeting should be included in the agenda. He promised to sanction Rs 20 lakh from MLA’s fund for construction of electric crematorium.