The Mysore City Corporation (MCC) has come under flak for taking selective recourse to the 74th amendment of the Constitution to justify its decision to take over water supply distribution from JUSCO.
The MCC Council resolved on Friday that it would take over from JUSCO on the expiry of its contract on May 31, 2015. JUSCO was given the contract under the 24x7 water supply project in 2007-08. Consequently, the MCC had the option of either handing over the responsibility to the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board or taking over charge. Councillors, cutting across party lines, resolved that the responsibility of ensuing water supply to the city should remain with the MCC and cited the 74th Amendment to the Constitution, which lists water supply as one of the primary duties of the local body.
However, the Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP) has pointed out that the objectives of the 74th Amendment were broader in scope and there were other responsibilities too under it, which the MCC had failed to discharge.
MGP president R. Chandra Prakash argued that constituting ward committees was also stipulated in the Amendment.
“Probably this provision was made also to restrict and restrain elected representatives from becoming a law unto themselves in their respective wards after election,” said Mr. Prakash, who pointed out that no serious efforts have gone into constituting the ward committees.
Other subjects
The MGP said that besides water supply, urban planning including town planning, regulation of land-use and construction of buildings, planning for economic and social development, urban forestry, etc., also constitute part of the Twelfth Schedule of the 74th Amendment. However, the councillors have not evinced any interest on these subjects, said Mr. Prakash.
There are concerns that with the MCC at the helm of affairs, it will mark the return of the water tankers mafia, and hence the MGP has appealed to the government to vest the responsibility with a professional body.
The MCC Council resolved on Friday that it would take over from JUSCO on the expiry of its contract on May 31, 2015. JUSCO was given the contract under the 24x7 water supply project in 2007-08
The MCC Council resolved on Friday that it would take over from JUSCO on the expiry of its contract on May 31
