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City Corporation honorary lifetime award for Kadri Gopalnath

Wednesday, 06 December 2017 06:35 administrator
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The Hindu      06.12.2017  

City Corporation honorary lifetime award for Kadri Gopalnath

Mayor Kavita Sanil addressing a press conference at the Mangaluru City Corporation on Tuesday.H.S. MANJUNATH  

Three more chosen in Yakshagana, Education, Sports categories

A committee of the Mangaluru City Corporation has chosen well-known saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath for the corporation’s first Ullal Srinivas Mallya Memorial Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award.

The award carries a purse of Rs. 1 lakh, a memento and a citation. The award will be presented during the Mangaluru City Corporation Day at the Town Hall here on December 8.

In addition, the committee has chosen three persons for the Ullal Srinivas Mallya Memorial Award for Yakshagana, Education and Sports.

They are Agari Raghurama Bhagavatha (Yakshagana); K.A. Rohini (Education) and M.R. Poovamma (Sports). Each one of them would be given away a purse of Rs. 50,000, a memento and a citation.

Announcing the awards here on Tuesday, Mayor Kavita Sanil said that the corporation has instituted the awards for the first time to recognise the contribution of those who have brought laurels to Mangaluru.

The selection committee comprised B.A. Vivek Rai, former Vice-Chancellor of Kannada University and also Karnataka State Open University; B.A. Abdul Rahman, former Vice-Chancellor, Kannur and Calicut universities, K.N. Tingalaya, former Chairman of Syndicate Bank, Rita Noronha, a social worker, and Manohar Prasad, a journalist. The Mayor is the ex-officio chairperson of the committee.

She said that the corporation would conduct a drawing competition for primary and high school students within the jurisdiction of the corporation in the forenoon on December 8. The topics would be Mangaluru International Airport; New Mangaluru Port; National Institute of Technology, Surathkal; National Highway 66 and Mangaluru-Hassan railway line.

The topics have been selected on the basis of contribution of late Mallya for their development. The venue would be the mini Town Hall. There will be three awards each in primary and high school categories. Students will have to register their names either by sending a message on WhatsApp to 9964160249 or 9113995063 before December 6.

She said that the programmes of the City Corporation Day would be conducted from 2.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. The awards would be presented at 6.30 p.m. There would be cultural programmes before and after the award presentation. D. Veerendra Heggade, Dharmadhikari of Shree Kshetra Dharmasthala, would present the awards.

The Mayor would present a karate demonstration after the award presentation.

 

GHMC rules amended

Friday, 15 September 2017 11:27 administrator
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The Hindu      15.09.2017

GHMC rules amended

10 civil society members to be nominated to the area sabhas

The State government has, on Thursday, issued orders amending the GHMC Rules, 2010, pertaining to the constitution, conduct of meetings, powers and functions of ward committees and area sabhas, in a bid to strengthen the area sabhas.

As per the orders, 10 civil society members would be nominated to the area sabhas apart from the representative, five of whom should be woman voters from the ward. President or secretary of registered resident welfare association of the area, president or secretary of the slum-level federation of a slum from the area, or in absence of such federation, representative from the senior self-help group in the area, member of registered association or institution, body, organisation, mahila mandali, trade union or chamber of commerce, and self-employed person such as auto driver, hamali, street vendor, carpenter, electrician or plumber should be among the members.

 

Tough choices ahead for Corporation

Thursday, 10 August 2017 00:00 administrator
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The Hindu       10.08.2017 

Tough choices ahead for Corporation

Road works stalled as contractors protest over GST charges

The city Corporation is left with some hard choices to bring an end to the tender boycott by its contractors after the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) which has stalled road works in the city. It could either revise the estimates by cutting down on the volume of work, thus earning the displeasure of the councillors or bear the extra costs from its own funds, at a time when it is reeling from loss of entertainment revenues.

The Mayor has called for a meeting with representatives of the six contractors’ unions in the city Corporation to bring an amicable settlement to the issue. Officials from the Taxes Department will also participate to communicate with the contractors.

Last month, all the contractors unions decided to boycott the tender process for works to be carried out in the city roads, citing the increase in their financial burden after the implementation of GST. Earlier, the tax for civil works were fixed at 6%, including Value Added Tax (VAT) of 4%, welfare fund contribution of 1% and income tax of 1%. Post- GST, this tax component has increased to 18%.

Thin margin

“Already, we were having only a thin margin of profits for works taken up in the Corporation. The GST has come as a huge blow. We decided to stay away from the tender process as there was no point in it, if we are not getting any profits from this. The issue can be solved if the Corporation is ready to bear the extra burden,” says contractor Anil.

Though the Corporation officials are hinting at a reduction of the tax to 12% by the GST council, no official decision has been communicated yet.

“By the time GST was implemented, we had got the technical sanctions and began the tender process. Only, VAT was considered in these estimates. Now, revising the estimates is not practical. The councillors will not agree to the cutting down of the already estimated works. The State Government has to take a decision on whether we can revise the estimates or make it up from our own funds. More clarity will be there after the government publishes a revenue note regarding this,” said the Corporation Mayor V.K.Prasanth.

Meanwhile, contractors who are not part of any of the six unions, bid successfully for the tenders of few works in the Kazhakuttam zone. The unions are seeing this as an attempt by the local body to defeat their tender boycott.

  • Mayor has called for a meeting with six contractors’ unions
  • Other contractors bid successfully for tenders in Kazhakuttam zone
 
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