Issues of stray dog menace, borewells and poor state of roads figured prominently in the general body meeting of the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) here on Tuesday.
Prashanth Amin, councillor, said many stray dogs were chasing and harassing people going towards Malpe fisheries harbour in the mornings. Whenever the CMC officials went to catch these stray dogs to sterilise them, the local people sheltered the dogs. The CMC should take immediate measures to tackle stray dogs, he said.
Some other councillors also supported Mr. Amin. Shantharam Salvankar, councillor, said the CMC should make some cages and detain these dogs. Intervening, CMC president P. Yuvaraj clarified that stray dogs could only be sterilised as per government rules.
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M.R. Pai, Leader of the Opposition, demanded to know if CMC had taken action to seal open borewells. Naveen Bhandary, councillor, said an open well without any enclosure was located in Bailoor.
Shashidhar Hegde, an official, said there were about 75 borewells in the city. But all of them, including those which had gone dry, had water pumps on them. There were three borewells on private properties, and the owners had been told to seal them, he said.
Narasimha Nayak, councillor, said there were a lot of potholes from Tiger Circle to Syndicate Circle in Manipal, though it was asphalted less than a year ago. Due to this, people found it inconvenient to stand at the bus stands there, he said.
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Srikant Rao, CMC Commissioner, said the CMC had planned to construct a modern bus stand with a market in Udupi and Manipal at a cost of Rs. 5 crore each.
Mr. Yuvaraj said since the road belonged to the Public Works Department, the CMC had no control over it. Ramesh Kanchan, councillor, said the payment to the contractor who asphalted the Tiger Circle-Syndicate Circle Road had been withheld and he had been told to repair the road.
To a question, the meeting was informed that nearly 51 persons, who had not paid water bills in the city, had been told to pay 50 per cent of the outstanding amount immediately and the rest in instalments. The neighbouring gram panchayats too had been told to pay their water bills immediately, Mr. Rao said.