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

Mangaluru, Jul 31: Unhappy over the condition of wet well in his ward, former mayor Ganesh Hosabettu came out with a unique way of protesting during the council meeting held at Mangaluru City Corporation here on Monday July 31. He carried rusted iron rod into the council meeting which was chaired by mayor Kavita Sanil.

His action did not go down 'well' with the members of the council.

MCC member A C Vinayraj opposed the behaviour of the former mayor and said this was totally 'wrong' and showed 'disrespect' to the council. "Former mayor should reveal the reason behind this protest and he should be evicted before the start of the meeting," he demanded.

Joining in, chief whip of MCC Shashidhar Hegde said, "Such experimental protest is not allowed during council meeting. This is for the first time someone has shown disrespect to the council meet. This type of protest should not be repeated."

Defending his action, Ganesh Hosabettu said that despite frequent complaints, there was no action taken regarding the wet wells in his ward, and that development works were still pending. He highlighted that poor quality pipes had been installed in five wet wells in Suratkal ward during the tenure of former mayor Harinath. He said that pipes had started leaking within three months of their installation, but no one had bothered to take action to fix them despite repeated complaints. "If the mayor does not order a probe into the issue, I will approach the Lokayukta," he said.

Chaos prevailed during the meeting for a short period of time even as mayor Kavita Sanil tried to bring the situation under control. She finally ordered MCC personnel to remove the rusted pipe from the hall.

Renaming of St Aloysius College Road

MCC member Premananda Shetty spoke on the controversy regarding renaming of St Aloysius College road to Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty road, and said, "On July 3, 2009, the government had passed notification on renaming the circles, streets and parks within the MCC limits. As per the notification, the government had passed an order to rename Light House Hill road to Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty road. But just a day before the inaugural of the road, the local MLA pressurized the government and succeeded in bringing in the temporary stay order. The document which was given to the government by the MLA was not genuine

"Stay on the renaming of the road was brought even after unanimously agreeing to the move during the council meet and getting it passed from the government. This is nothing but insult to the proceedings of council meeting," he added.

Member Mohammed said, "The government has not passed any orders to abandon the existing name and also not giving order to verify the issue."

There was argument between the opposition and administrators on the road issue. Mayor Kavita Sanil said, "We have sent the objections raised about the renaming issue to the government. There was also a proposal to rename it to Idgah Masjid road and Bavuta Gudde road." The argument continued without yielding any specific results on the same.

The ruling and opposition members hurled accusation against each other over the issue. When the situation further deteriorated, mayor Kavita Sanil walked off from the meet.

The meeting resumed after 10 minutes but again the opposition leaders raised the same issue. Mayor Kavita Sanil told them, "This issue is not within the boundaries of the MCC. This has been brought to the notice of the district in-charge minister. We will take concrete measures to sort out this controversy based on the decision taken during the earlier council meet."

Deputy mayor Rajaneesh, Standing committee president Prathibha Kulai, Abdul Rauf, Nagaveni, Sabitha Misquith and others were present.