Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (MS/HB)

Udupi, Nov 30: General body meeting of the zilla panchayat was scheduled to be held on Friday, November 30 at the Dr V S Acharya auditorium in the city. However, due to the lack of quorum of 19 members, required to conduct the meeting, the same was postponed by half an hour.

The meeting started after the members arrived. The president of the standing committee was late by half an hour to the meeting.

Marali Pratap Hegde said, "The issues of sand extraction and toll gate are severe in the district. None of the rules including toll collection apply to the panchayat road." Pratap also objected for keeping the district Karnataka Rajyotsava award distribution on the same day as the meeting.

Batawadi Suresh said, "District administration is not taking the issues raised by members of zilla panchayat seriously. This shows disrespect."

Sheela K Shetty, vice-president of zilla panchayat (ZP) took the officials of the national highway to task and questioned them on the collection of toll even before finishing the project and also for having done shabby highway road work and also said that in future only the officials of NH, who understand Kannada language should take part in the meeting. Sheela also said that it is an insult to the zilla panchayat of fixing the Rajyotsava award ceremony on the same day as that of the general body meeting.

Member of zilla panchayat, Geetanjali Suvarna said, "Collection of toll at Hejmady is unacceptable. How come the police have collected the toll on behalf of Navyug company during the recent protests at the tollgate? We also know how to protest violently. We are not scared of any arrests that will be made by the police."

President of zilla panchayat Dinakar Babu boycotted the meeting and walked off the auditorium, saying that "The meeting is postponed as I am unhappy over the attitude of the district administration. The general body meeting of ZP was postponed earlier also. In addition, though the meeting related to sand extraction got cancelled I did not have the information, so I attended. The district administration showed a kind of disrespect to me. There is no compatibility between ZP and district administration. The deputy commissioner does not respect the decisions that are taken in the meeting of ZP."

Babu Shetty, president of social standing committee announced that the general body meeting is postponed.