Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Aug 9: BJP district president K Monappa Bhandary has come down heavily on the Congress leaders for statements on the water tariff issue that he termed as 'childish'.

He pointed out at a press conference held on Friday August 8 that the Congress had, when it was ruling the city corporation, hiked water tariff thrice between 1997 to 2007. Because of the stiff resistance by the BJP which was in the opposition then, water tariff hike was not implemented in 2007, he said.

The rates were raised during the governor's rule, when the administrator was in charge of the city corporation. The BJP after rising to power, has downwardly revised the tariff with effect from July 1 this year, Monappa Bhandary clarified. He also blamed the communists for their misinformation campaign on this issue.

Congress leaders Janardan Poojary and Ramanath Rai have been claiming that they had not revised water tariffs in the city, covering up the fact that the Congress administration had hiked water tariff thrice in 1997, 2003 and 2007. This is just a conspiracy to malign the BJP. Congress leaders do not have moral right to speak on water tariffs, he felt.

The criticism that residential purpose water consumption limit has been reduced by the BJP to 15,000 litres from the earlier 25,000 litres is baseless. Actually, the limit has been raised to 15,000 litres per month from the earlier 10,000 litres. Congress leaders appear to be suffering from insufficient information, Bhandary said. It may be mentioned, that in Udupi munciipal council, Congress councillors had cited the water tariffs as levied in Mangalore city as a model and urged that council to follow suit, he reminded.

Protesting is a democratic right, but pre-planned protests against civic norms like the one staged in August 4 are unwarranted, he felt.

MLA Yogish Bhat, mayor Ganesh Hosbettu, deputy mayor Shakila Kawa, whip M Shankar Bhat, MLC Capt Ganesh Karniak and others were present at the press conference.