Earlier, Town Panchayats were upgraded into Town Municipalities only when the population exceeded 20,000. However, the government has changed the criteria and decided to upgrade all Town Panchayats located at taluk headquarters. If N R Pura was upgraded into Town Municipality, 6,367 population comprising 1,620 families in Hiluvalli, Indiranagar, Hale Cinemaraste, Suggappanamata, Housing Board Colony, Suragimata, Nagalapura, Janatha Colony, Yadadalu, Bastigadde, Menasuru, Bypass Road, Bagravani, Kamana Kodige, Malankar Church Road, Lingapur and BH Kaimara areas will be added to it. The annual sanction will be increased to Rs 3 crore from Rs 1 crore once it was upgraded.

Though infrastructure including underground drainage and roads will be developed after the upgradation, people are apprehensive about an increase in the revenue tariff.

All elected representatives will lose their power, when their respective gram panchayats were merged with the new municipality. Similarly, villagers will lose the opportunities to avail the benefits under the NREG Scheme. Meanwhile, sanctions from Centre will be increased considerably after the upgradation.

A proposal has already been sent to the government for the upgradation of Town Panchayat. The proposal will be published in the Karnataka Gazette and a decision will be taken by the government after verifying objections.

Town Panchayat President B S Ashish Kumar said that the town will be developed rapidly, if it was upgraded. Similarly, villages attached to the panchayat will also be developed, he added.

Addressing the general body meeting of the City Corporation held on Friday, members raised objection over the inefficient water supply and water scarcity haunting the city even during rainy season.

They said that before commissioning of ADB water supply project, the Corporation had managed to meet the water demand of the city using 18 MGD alone but now due to illegal connections made to provide water to rural area, meeting water demand in MCC limits has become a problem. Officials too agreed that over 40 per cent of 18 MGD water is illegally tapped to provide water to rural area. Responding to this, Mayor M Shanker Bhat said that 25 such illegal connections are suspected in the 18 MGD and illegal connections are espected to rise during rainy season. He ordered the officials concerned to identify all illegal connections within 10 days.

Members questioned the progress in ADB drinking water project and complained that though the KUDCEMP officials have been saying that the drinking water project has been completed, many areas have still not received water.

KUDCEMP official informed the House that 99 per cent works have been completed while linking works at certain areas are remaining. About 4 MGD water is being pumped to Padil on daily basis depending on the requirement for 8 to 10 hours using two pumps.
He further clarified that KUDCEMP officials are not responsible for operating the valves while it is to be done by MCC officials. This caused chaos in the House as members said that though ADB project will be soon handed over to MCC, there is no valve operator in place and certain aspects like who is going to operate the valves is still not clear.

Nirmala Nagara

Member Shantha Ravindra questioned the House about the purpose, function and progress of Nirmala Nagar unit existing in MCC.

She said that though it was started two years ago for conducting survey in MCC limits, nobody knows the status of the project. Further, Rs 2 lakh is spent every month for the payment of salary of employees in the unit.

Joint Commissioner M K Gadkar said that survey work in 54 wards have been completed while the entire project will be completed by December.

Member Mariamma Thomas said that concrete roads all over the city are in precarious condition reflecting the poor quality concrete works done. She alleged the Engineer of being partial while allocating SFC grant to some corporators. Endorsing her views, many other members too spoke of poor quality concrete works in their ward and demanded enquiry into the works.

The Mayor said that the concrete work is being done in the City like an ‘andholan’ and accordingly Deputy Commissioner had convened a meeting with the officials concerned and contractors and has asked the contractors to utilise the entire SFC grant of Rs 20 crore and Rs 50 crore fund by September.

Honourarium

Opposition Leader Harinath said that though huge hue and cry was made about hike in honourarium for Corporators, their hopes shattered like castle of cards on Thursday when Finance Secretary disapproved the proposal.
He said that they were hurt by the move of the Finance Secretary who hiked the Honourarium of former MLAs and MLAs many fold but disapproved the hike for corporators. The Mayor said that District-in-Charge Minister has still not lost hopes on it and he has assured to take up the matter again.

Rain compensation

During the beginning of the meet, the Mayor said that Rs 5 crore has been sanctioned for the district for providing rain damage compensation. Accordingly, an action plan has been prepared and sent to the Government.

Mariamma Thomas questioned the Mayor how the plan was sent to the Government without asking the members the extent of damages in their wards and their requirements.

The Mayor said that once the action plan is approved, the requirements of the wards will be taken up accordingly.