Members of the Udupi city unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a dharna in front of the Clock Tower here on Friday against what they termed “massive corruption” in the Congress-ruled Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC).
Addressing the protestors here, K. Raghupati Bhat, former MLA, said that there was lot of corruption in the CMC in awarding development works. He alleged that the Congress councillors were demanding 10 per cent “commission” after the tendered works were awarded.
The Congress councillors also threatened the contractors who did not pay commission to them. Recently, Prashanth Bhat, chairman of the Standing Committee of CMC, had accepted Rs. 5,000 for sanctioning the installation of a mobile tower in the city.
When Mr. Bhat was confronted with the receipt of the payment, he said that he had done so by mistake and not intentionally.
But this excuse could not be accepted. The CMC should disband the Standing Committee and Mr. Bhat should be disqualified as councillor.
The BJP would urge the Deputy Commissioner to launch a probe into the matter, Mr. Bhat said.
Mattar Ratnakar Hegde, president of the district unit of the BJP, Dinakar Babu, president of the zilla panchayat, Mahesh Thakur, Raghavendra Kini, Kiran Kumar, Prabhakar Poojary, BJP leaders, were present.
