Members of the Congress on Wednesday staged a protest on the premises of the Shivamogga City Corporation seeking a probe into the greening drive launched in 2012.
Addressing the protest meet, councillor P.V. Vishwanath said, when the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power in the Shivamogga City Municipal Council in 2012, a programme to increase the green cover in the city limits had been launched with planting of one lakh saplings.
The municipal council had set aside Rs. 5 crore in the 2012-13 budget for the purpose. However, large-scale irregularities had surface in the implementation of the programme. The office of the Auditor-General, in its annual report, had highlighted the irregularities in the implementation of the drive, he said and urged the State government to order a probe into the programme and deal sternly with the guilty. Functionaries of the Congress Deepak Singh and A.H. Sunil took part.
