'Cong has failed in city administration'

The BJP City unit members and BJP corporators staged a protest against the failure of the Congress administration, outside the City Corporation office on Tuesday.

The protesters said that the pothole-ridden roads in the heart of the city and interior areas in the MCC jurisdiction are causing inconvenience to the vehicle-users. They also complained that the officials of the civic body had shown no interest in filling up the potholes on the roads in the interior areas.

Addressing the protesters, Sudheer Shetty, leader of the Opposition (BJP) in the Corporation Council said that by introducing cess on solid waste management, the Corporation has increased the burden of the citizens. “Garbage is not collected effectively in the City. Though the commissioner has stated that tax on advertisements can be increased by 300 per cent, the standing committee on Finance and Taxation has increased the same by merely 30 per cent, thus affecting the income generation of the corporation. The sewage at Attavara, Milagres and Kodialbail are let to flow in the open. Without the functioning of wet wells, the sewage is pumped and let into a water body near Jeppinamogaru,” he complained.

Shetty alleged that the MCC had decided to take over the charge of underground drainage (UGD) systems taken up under the first phase of the KUDCEMP project, funded by the Asian Development Bank, for its maintenance, in spite of the opposition objecting to the move. “Under the first phase, works worth Rs 226 crore have been taken up, which include the work on 22 wet wells, 355-km long underground drain lines, 16,815 UGD inspection chambers (manholes) and four STPs. However, the STP at Madhava Nagara in Surathkal has not been maintained. In spite of inaugurating the STP at Jeppinamogaru, it has not started functioning. The work that was taken up under the Asian Development Bank project has failed to connect sewer lines from houses of the residents to the inspection chambers of the main sewage-carrying pipelines in several areas,” said Shetty.

“The promises made by the Congress during the election on not to hike property tax under the self-assessment scheme has not been fulfilled. The ruling Congress has failed to take up the work on footpaths and drains as promised in the manifesto of the election. The absence of footpaths has forced people to walk on the road, risking their lives,” he said.

Corporator Premananda Shetty said that internal conflicts of the Congress had affected the administration in the Mangaluru City Corporation. “The development works have come to a standstill in the last one year. Without proper arrangement, the street vendors have encroached majority of the available footpaths on the roads,” he said.