Ruckus in Mangaluru council meeting over garbage row

The row over failure on the part of the door-to-door waste collectors to collect garbage, resulting in many public places in the city turning into garbage black spots, created ruckus in the council meeting of Mangaluru City Corporation.

The meeting was chaired by Mayor Premananda Shetty.

Opposition leader A C Vinayraj alleged that people have been throwing waste by the roadside due to the failure on part of the contractors, who engage in door-to-door waste collection in the city.

Corporators Praveenchandra Alva and Naveen D’Souza alleged sanitary inspectors were failing to monitor waste collections in the city.

The arguments on waste collection led to Congress members entering the well of the house and holding a protest for a few minutes.

While convincing the corporators from Congress, the Mayor said that “dumping waste in public places was witnessed even when the Congress was in power. Our team of officials have been identifying all the black spots and clearing it. CCTV cameras have been installed at many places to penalise those who dump waste in the city.”

Row over LED lights

Corporator from the Congress Lancelot Pinto raised the issue of LED lamps of low luminosity being installed as part of the LED streetlight project taken up under Mangaluru Smart City Limited (MSCL).

Vinayaraj said that the contractors have been installing only 20 watt LED lamps.

MCC Commissioner Akshy Sridhar said three showcase notices have been served on contractors. “So far, the contractors have installed 6,842 LED streetlights. We have sought the contractors and their lead partners to provide an explanation before the city corporation. If they continue to delay the work, we will issue a pre-termination notice. If the luminosity is less than the agreement, then it will be replaced through our engineers,” he added.

On-site compost units

The council of the city corporation has resolved to withhold the October 31 deadline given for bulk waste generators to install on-site compost units to process wet waste.

The Mayor said that there are a lot of confusions in the rule that mandates on-site compost units mandatory by the bulk waste generators in the city.

The council also has approved a proposal to appoint 35 vacant posts of data entry operators to expedite the process of e-payment facilities.

Another proposal to name a circle at Surathkal after Veer Savarkar mooted by Mangaluru City North MLA Y Bharath Shetty was referred to the Standing Committee on Town Planning.

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