Pics: Umesh Marpalli

Daijiworld Media Work - Udupi (HB)

Udupi, Jun 30: Chaos erupted on the issues of street lights, drainage, electric poles at the general body City Municipality Council (CMC), here on Thursday June 30.

Vasanthi Shetty, Ambalpady complained that the health inspector was not responding to her call on time and that her ward was lagging behind on basic amenities such as water, drainage and lights. Meenakshi Madhav Bannanje, president of CMC insisted that he respond to the matter fast.

Most of the councillors opposed ‘Janahita’ (state government scheme for public grievances and redressal) and said "Working out a solution for the problem is hard now. The government has failed to monitor the whole system. Even the public is facing problem from BSNL. There is need for a meeting for MESCOM, BSNL and the contractors to address the public problems. Contractors do not attend public complaints whenever they are called."

Answering their queries Meenakshi said, "CMC will give a month's time for the problems to be solved and all pending work to be completed otherwise we will cancel their contract."

Regarding ‘Janahita’, commissioner Manjunathayya said, "There is no provision for direct approach to CMC as all grievances have to be routed through Janahita. The DC has assured me that he will try to make the calls toll free."

Janardhan Bhandarkar said, "The CMC has paid Rs 2.72 crore towards MESCOM bill in the current year. Why are the officials reluctant to supply electricity?"

Harishram, Bannanje ward councillor alleged, "CMC is directly responsible for Savitha who lost her life at a flooded field recently at night near Bannanje. Since desilting work has not been taken up in the city, it has created artificial floods, drainage blocks in and around the city. The desilting work is supposed to be complete before the monsoon. I urged that this issue is taken seriously with immediate action."

Raghavendra, an engineer in response to the question said, "Segregation of waste is a big challenge in the city. Hence there is need to organize a door to door campaign to create awareness about the effects of plastic usage."

The commissioner read out a circular on norms for constructing the new layout which states that a newly built layout must have a water harvesting pit or else CMC will not issue an NOC.

M R Pai, opposition party leader condemned the CMC for not accomplishing the work which ought to have been done long back.

A minute's silence was observed for the Trasi accident victims.