Mangalore: Corporators Tour at Taxpayers Cost, Ignore Civic Issues
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (MM/CN)
Mangalore, Oct 20: Never ending water woes, improper garbage disposal, stinking drainages, potholes on city roads—these are all part and parcel of life in our very own ‘Kudla’. And there are no corporators around to listen to anyone’s complaints because they are all away on tour!
Of course, at the expense of the taxpayers, who else? The loan received from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), for improving infrastructure and other essential services, is the source of the funds for their tour. Eventually it is the local citizens who have to shoulder the burden of the loan repayment.
A group of corporators have recently returned after a tour of Hyderabad, while two other groups headed for Cochin and Chennai. Interestingly, there is no rivalry between the Congress and ruling BJP, who are at loggerheads during municipal meetings, when it comes to good times such as these.
Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Management Project (KUDCEMP) has undertaken work on water supply and drainage in the city with the ADB loan and sixty percent of the work is completed. The corporation has to approve the bill for the work carried out by KUDCEMP. If the municipal body finds any irregularity in the work, only the corporators can come to the rescue of KUDCEMP in getting them their payment. Hence, KUDCEMP has organized the tours for the corporators, claim sources.
City mayor Ganesh Hosabettu says that the corporators were sent to Cochin and Chennai to study the municipal works done in these two cities by KUDCEMP. If this is true, they would have taken technical persons and experts with them to study the situation, opine sources. Interestingly, the relatives of the corporators have also joined them in their tours !