Pics: Meryick D'Silva
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (CLP)

Mangaluru, Feb 28: The council meeting of Mangalore City Corporation was held at Mangala auditorium on Saturday February 28. Mayor Mahabala Maarla chaired the meeting.

The meeting witnessed a war of words between the opposition BJP led by Premananda Shetty and the mayor and ruling party members about various issues.

The opposition took on the mayor over the pending work on streetlights, signboards, footpaths and other facilities on the newly-concreted Bunts Hostel-Dr Ambedkar circle stretch.

In reply, the mayor said, "The newly-concreted road was opened to reduce traffic jams. I never said all the work was over, but it will be completed at the earliest. If we had waited till all the work got completed, it would have taken longer time for the road to open."

Town Hall renovation

BJP corporators also raised concerns over the delay in the renovation work on Town Hall. They targeted the engineers and MCC commissioner Hephsiba Rani Korlapati for the delay and demanded speedy completion of the work. They also demanded the MCC to provide an alternative place for artistes till town hall is renovated, and raised concerns over the fact that not a single work was initiated from the past 25 days.

In reply the mayor said, "I have worked for the welfare of the people, I have put all efforts for the speedy completion of the work. The list of the demands of the artistes has to be completed. The contractors are resposible for the delay in the work. I want the work to be completed within two months with all the facilities in place."

MLC Ivan D'Souza said, "Town Hall is the heritage of Mangaluru. In the recent meeting with the district incharge minister, officials were directed to complete the work fast and hand over the Town Hall to artistes. If we do not complete the work it is like cheating the artistes and the people of Mangaluru. The work was supposed to be completed by December 31, 2014. It has been lagging behind for a number of reasons. On the state government's part we will take strict action against the officers concerned if the work is not complete in three months."

Solid waste management

Corporator Dayananda Shetty raised concern about carrying garbage in open trucks, and showed pictures to the session to support his claims. He also alleged poor quality in Antony Waste Handling company, and said it was being paid three times more than the previous contractors. "Its workers are not collecting waste regularly from houses, the dust bins are still there, and streets and roadsides are not being swept," he said.

Other corporators too joined in, and alleged poor service from the company. Some contractors said door-to-door collection agents are not even getting down from the vehicle and people are unaware of the waste collection time-table.

In reply, MCC commissioner Hephsiba Rani Korlapati said, "We are monitoring the work of the Antony Waste Handling company. We have asked the company to submit the time-table of the collection in all the wards. There is also a problem of shortage in vehicles - 60 wards in Mangaluru are provided with 55 vehicles. We are going to create a link in the MCC portal where people can check the time-table of the collection of waste in all wards. Regarding poor service we have already issued a showcause notice to the company for not collecting the waste on Sundays. We have given targets to the company and we are monitoring the work on day-to-day basis."

Mayor Mahabala Maarla said, "Do not wait till 30 days to complain about the issues in meetings. You can immediately report it to the commissioner and action will be taken. We have installed CCTV cameras in dumping yard, and we are going to install GPS navigation on every vehicle to track the location. Regarding the shortage of vehicles, we have requested to provide more vehicles at the earliest and a showcause notice has already been served to the company. We will initiate strict action if they fail to deliver the services as promised."

Many other issues like traffic jam in the city, raising of corporator fund slab, inferior quality of work by KUDCEMP and other issues were discussed.

Deputy mayor Kavita, MLA J R Lobo and others were present.

Wednesdays for dry waste collection

Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JS)

Earlier in the day, a press meet was organized at MCC to create awareness among the people about solid waste management.

MCC commissioner Hephsiba Korlapati urged the people to separate the dry waste and wet waste, and give only dry waste on Wednesdays and wet waste on other 6 days of the week.

She further said, "In all urban areas, waste management is an important task. Full implementation of waste management has not been achieved by any municipality. Antony Waste Handling company started working from February 1. We have set targets to clean up the city, and we are progressing. If everything goes well, then by the end of March 31 this year we will achieve our targets. We will start source segregation soon. Solid waste management is a prime responsibility of the corporation commissioner."

Speaking to reporters, mayor Mahabala Maarla said, "Antony company has taken the responsibility of looking over the waste management in the city. The commissioner has been doing weekly review about the project work. Once the project is completely implemented, we are planning to levy a fine if someone throws household waste in a haphazard manner."

Corporator Ashok D K was present during the press meet.