Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)
Udupi, Apr 23: Issues related to water scarcity, waste management and hike in trade licence fee dominated the general body meeting of Udupi City Municipal Council held at Satyamurthy auditorium here on Saturday, April 23.
Vasanthi Shetty of Ambalpady ward blamed NHAI workers for the water crisis in the ward. "The workers have dug out all water pipes without issuing any notice, hence 10-15 houses are facing severe water problem from two months," she said.
"There is a need to create awareness about rainwater harvesting among public and make underground drainage system mandatory for all apartments," opined Shyam Prasad Kudva.
Environmental engineer Raghavendra informed that a complete survey had been done on the city population and of commercial flats, apartments and shops so as to manage the waste systematically. "Nearly 394 flats, 8,500 houses, around 590 hotels, 6,500 ordinary shops, 20,900 individual houses have been covered in the survey," he said.
"Now we are collecting fees from five wards (nearly 60 flats) on a trial basis. Owners of about 5-10 flats are yet to decide. About 52 garbage tempos are required perfect the waste management system. A tempo can cover 28-30 kilometers a day collecting waste. We will carry out these plans on a trial and error basis," he added.
The engineer further said that he would propose a new bylaw for proper waste management and that he had plans to generate compost from 8 tonnes of waste.
Speaking earlier, Amrutha Krishnamurthy Acharya raised the issue of hefty increase in the trade licence fee, 15 times more than the previous year's.
"Former deputy commissioner M T Reju had fixed the rate for trade licence in 2013, but the new deputy commissioner passed an order to bring uniformity in trade license fee for Kundapur, Saligram, Karkala and Udupi," said CMC commissioner D Manjunathayya.
After a heated discussion, the commissioner agreed to bring amendments in trade licence fee and said that the proposal would be tabled in a meeting before any decision is taken.
CMC president Meenakshi Madhava Bannaje, vice-president Sandhya Kumari and others present.