Silvester D’Souza

Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (MS)

Kundapur, Sep 24: “In Kundapur municipality, there have been no president or vice president for the past 17 months, forcing municipality members to convey the public's issues to the officials. However, everyone believed that the election of a new president and vice president would resolve the public's issues through monthly general body meetings and communication from the people's representatives. Unfortunately, recent developments in the municipality seem to be discouraging,” said former city development authority president K Vikas Hegde.

“Instead of addressing the public's pending issues from the past year and a half, the ruling party members appear more interested in distributing work to contractors identified in the 15th financial grant from the government.

“The senior-most member of Kundapur municipality, Mohandas Shenoy, distributed tenders for specified works under the 15th financial commission to contractors he knows at the Dr V S Acharya auditorium on September 4 at 6 PM. He also gave verbal instructions to quote tenders at SR rates, undermining the transparency of online tenders. He warned contractors that their tenders would be cancelled if they quoted a lower price than what he had quoted. This has caused significant loss to the state exchequer. It is regrettable that most town municipality members were absent during this unofficial meeting in the municipality's meeting hall.

“Due to the president's actions, an estimated Rs 20 lac was lost to the town municipality's exchequer and the government on September 5. It appears prima facie that a scam has taken place in issuing tenders. The deputy commissioner should conduct a suitable investigation through the Lokayukta into the decisions made during this unofficial meeting, cancel those tenders, and reissue them according to regulations.

“In addition, people had high expectations for honest governance from national awardee Mohan Shenoy, who was elected as the president of Kundapur town municipality for the third time. However, within one month of assuming office, Shenoy engaged in insider dealings with contractors, misusing his power and deceiving the residents of 23 wards in Kundapur and the government. He must answer these allegations and should resign on moral grounds,” he said.