MANGALORE :“There is no question of going back on the decision made to supply water to Nagarjuna. In case water supply to the company is stopped then the water supply to Mulki and Ullal will also be stopped,†said Mayor Shankar Bhat.
The ordinary meeting of MCC held on Tuesday witnessed a heated debate over the question of releasing water to Nagarjuna Company. “The MCC must never enter into any agreement with the industries. Earlier it had entered into an agreement with MRPL wherein MCC had given the approval for the construction of a vented dam in Sarapady. The agreement stipulated that the MRPL was bound to unconditionally release water to the city in times of scarcity. However, MRPL failed to abide by this provision when the city went through acute scarcity of drinking water. Therefore any agreement with Nagarjuna will pose a severe problem in the future†said the former Mayor Shashidhar Hegde.
Expressing her support to Shashidhar Hegde, Mariamma Thomas an independent member said “Some of the wards are already facing water scarcity. There cannot be any question of releasing water to Nagarjunaâ€. The Congress members demanded revocation of the agreement made with Nagarjuna regarding the supply of water. When the Mayor refused to budge from his stand, the Congress members expressed their protest by sitting right in front of the seat of the Mayor. The chief whip of MCC Ganesh Hosabettu read out the agenda and approved the same.
Speaking during the beginning of the meeting Mariamma Thomas said “the town planning engineers Manjunath and Shivaraj who have been suspended following a Lokayukta a raid are getting their half salary by merely sitting at home. The tax payers money must not be wasted like this, Either these engineers must be dismissed from the service or the MCC must fill up the vacant postsâ€
The BJP member Sudhir Shetty Kannur who intervened to speak said that his ward is getting 24 hrs of water supply and profusely praised the Mayor for his administration.
Mariamma threatens hunger strike
“The officials of MCC have been grossly neglecting the estimated list of the works to be undertaken under the 2009-10 budget. If the MCC does not come up with a list of estimated works prepared on the basis of the priorities submitted by me and does not attend to the problems of my ward within 20 days I will resort to hunger strike in front of the MCC†warned independent member Mariayamma Thomas.
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