The Hindu 19.11.2010
Madikeri CMC favours auctioning of 78 shops
| Scrap-yard merchants too have been evicted |
Making a point:Madikeri City Municipal Council president P.D. Ponnappa (centre) at the monthly council meeting in Madikeri on Thursday.
Madikeri: The Madikeri City Municipal Council (CMC), at a meeting held here on Thursday, decided to seek legal opinion and auction 78 shops in the city which had been occupied beyond their stipulated period. The occupants of these shops had been evicted, following a High Court order recently.
CMC president P.D. Ponnappa, who presided over the meeting, said steps would be taken to evict those shopkeepers who were yet to vacate the shops since the licence stood in the name of their father or earlier occupants. T.M. Aiyappa, a Congress councillor, said legal opinion must be obtained before auctioning the shops.
The CMC decided to evict the scrap yard merchants as a number of such shops had come up in the city.
They had encroached roads, obstructing movement of vehicles and people. Rajesh and K.S. Ramesh (Bharatiya Janata Party) said action should be taken against the engineer concerned for not taking steps to clear the scrap yards and shift them outside the city, despite a previous CMC decision to this effect.
S.I. Muneer Ahmad, an independent councillor, wanted Mr. Ponnappa to explain why action was not taken against the official. Mr. Ponnappa said he would write to the Department of Municipal Affairs to take action against the environment engineer who had failed to carry out the CMC orders, if scrap yards were not vacated in a week’s time.
The issue of payment of fee to the CMC advocate, who handled the case relating to the eviction of shopkeepers, was discussed. Members of the ruling party said Rs. 15,000 should be paid for each of the 78 shops as fee. Members of the Opposition parties objected saying it could lead to complications during audit.
CMC Commissioner Srikant Rao said fee would have to be paid to the advocate since the matter had gone to the High Court.
Earlier, 11 councillors — six from the BJP and rest from the Opposition parties — were picked for CMC Works Committee for one year. They are T.S. Prakash, Unnikrishnan, K.S. Ramesh, G.M. Satish Pai, Manjula and Pratibha Shetty (all BJP), besides Ashraf, Sunil Nanjappa, S.I. Muneer Ahmad, K.T. Baby Mathew and Dhanalakshmi from the Opposition were among those nominated.
CMC vice-president Lata Bangera was present.
