The Hindu : Row over Mayor's 'bias' in granting funds

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Row over Mayor's 'bias' in granting funds

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE June 30. The Opposition members in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Council on Monday accused the Mayor, C.M. Nagaraj, of indulging in favouritism in allocating funds from his discretionary quota for emergency works in various wards.

Alleging "misappropriation" of the Rs. 10-crore fund at the council's monthly meeting, the JD(U) leader, Padmanabha Reddy, questioned Mr. Nagaraj as to how he could sanction funds for works without inspecting the areas where they were to be taken up.

Commotion prevailed at the council meeting till late in the afternoon. Members, led by the Leader of the Opposition, Syed Jameel Ahmed, and the BJP floor leader, B.S. Satyanarayana, refused to withdraw the dharna till the Mayor promised a detailed discussion on the issue. They shouted slogans against him.

They were protesting against the Mayor's alleged bias towards a few corporators and the adoption of a resolution "in haste" last week on handing over 11 BMP playgrounds to the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) to form tennis courts.

They demanded that the resolution be withdrawn, and refused to suspend the dharna till the Commissioner, M.R. Sreenivas Murthy, clarified to the House that a resolution could not be withdrawn as per the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act.

``The Act does not permit us to withdraw the resolution, but there are chances for modifications.

"The resolution can be called back in the Council through Rule 10 or 51, and modified with a two-thirds majority,'' Mr. Murthy explained.

The Mayor promised the corporators that a special meeting would be convened shortly to discuss the matter. If necessary, the resolution could be modified, he said.

Amidst the commotion, the former Mayor, K. Chandrashekar, the V.V. Puram corporator, P.R. Ramesh, and the ruling party leader, M. Nagaraj, tried in vain to convince the members about the advantages of letting out the 11 playgrounds to the KSLTA.

Later, the Council adopted a resolution to allocate Rs. 75,000 to the Banaswadi corporator, Lokesh Reddy, who suffered paralysis recently.

The Mayor directed the Commissioner to expedite the process of releasing the medical relief grants from his discretionary quota to the needy. If hospital bills had already been paid, the amount could be reimbursed on producing bills, he said.

`Illegal demolition'

The JD(S) member, B.R. Nanjundappa, complained to the Mayor that Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force personnel and BMP officials had "illegally" demolished over 20 huts (that were built on private land 15 years ago) in Brindavannagar in Mathikere on June 28.

The Mayor promised him that a team of party leaders and the Commissioner would inspect the area on Tuesday to find out if the demolition was "illegal".

The Commissioner said demolition of illegal structures was necessary to ensure the City's "better future".

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