Mayor’s Dictatorship in Distribution of Water – BJP
Mangaluru: The South and North City constituencies of the BJP staged a protest at the A B Shetty circle, here on April 6, against the Mayor of Mangaluru city corporation for not taking the opposition corporators to confidence while taking decisions on the distribution of water in the city.
Addressing the protesters Monappa Bhandary said, “At present in the Thumbay dam there is 15.5 ft of water which is enough until June. Last year, this time the water level was only 7.10 ft. The Mayor is acting like a dictator in distributing the water. Now water is available only on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and on Thursday and Friday there is no distribution of water. The people of the city are facing severe water crisis because of the attitude of the Mayor.”
Monappa Bhandary further said, “The commissioner of MCC says that the water level has not decreased, besides MRPL and MSEZ use water from the AMR dam which shows that there is no scarcity of water. But why does the Mayor not want to provide water to the people of Mangaluru city? Is she under the influence of Industries or the Borewell and Tanker Lobby”? he questioned.
Monappa also said, “In the AMR dam there is 18 MTR water, in Nekkiladi dam also there is water and the water in Thumbay dam is 15.5 ft which is sufficient for 60 days. But the Mayor has started the rationing system for the distribution of water. The decision to impose a tax on garbage waste along with the trade license is also unscientific. The small time vendors will be affected by such a system. Already the small time vendors are facing problems to pay the electricity bill and the rent has also been increased while the business situation is bad. The unscientific tax on small vendors has brought them on the road. Many of them say that they will close down their businesses and join the street vendors instead of paying rent, tax, garbage tax and the electricity bill. The garbage tax is very high compared to the previous years. The garbage tax should be withdrawn immediately and set scientifically.”
Former Mayor Ganesh Hosabettu, Yohesh Bhat, Vedavyas Kamath, Dr Bharath Shetty and others were also present.