The move by the Cantonment Board, Belgaum, executive to push through the revised Building Bye-Laws for cantonment areas in the city boomeranged with the elected members disapproving of the ‘undemocratic’ ways adopted by the board.
As the matter was placed before the ordinary general body meeting here on Tuesday, member Sajeed N. Shaikh alleged that the CBB officials had not followed due procedure before placing the proposal at the board meeting.
The member-secretary of CBB H.E. Harsha had placed the draft of the bye-laws before the meeting requesting the board members to consider and accord approval. The members were informed that the board had issued public notice by publishing it in English, Kannada and Marathi newspapers on August 12, 2016 seeking suggestions from the residents of the cantonment for framing building bye-laws. However, no suggestion from the citizens poured in till date.
But, Mr. Shaikh said the CBB officials should have made the 190-page draft public and invited objections. Even the draft copy was not supplied to the board members.
“How can we give approval to such important bye-laws without reading and understanding them in the proper perspective? We are elected members and answerable to the residents of the cantonment who elected us to the board to protect their interest and not serve the interests of the officials,” he told newsmen after the meeting.
He said when he expressed his intention to put a dissent note on the issue, member-secretary Praveen Shinde agreed to keep a copy of the draft bye-laws at the CBB office for the public and record their objections, if any.
‘Clean drains before monsoon’
Mr. Shaikh urged the CBB officials to take up cleaning of rainwater drains immediately. He said it would take at least two months for the CBB workers to do so. All the drains must be cleaned before the onset of next monsoon, else the residents would face problems due to choking during rainy days, he said.
