DISCORD: BJP Councillors, led by N. Yogish Bhat, MLA, arguing with Mayor K. Ashraf (left) at the special meeting of the council at Mangalore City Corporation on Tuesday.

MANGALORE: The Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) council has demanded that the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) remit the amount of Rs. 2 crores given to it for restoration work of roads in Mangalore, to the corporation account. These roads were damaged during extensive digging for laying pipelines. The special meeting of the MCC council with KUIDFC officials held here on Tuesday, under the chairmanship of Mayor K. Ashraf, observed that the stipulated one metre width digging area has been extended three metres in many places.

This has resulted in many stretches being un-motorable.

Giving details of such roads, Opposition (BJP) leader Shankar Bhat told the council that the KUIDFC has dug over 800 km of road within the MCC limits, but only a few stretches have been restored. He urged the Mayor to ask the KUIDFC to either take up restoration works or remit the restoration fee to the corporation.

Water-recycle plant

The meeting also took up the issue of having wet-wells exclusively to recycle sewage waters and supply it to various industries in and around Mangalore.

The Mangalore Refineries and Petroleum Ltd. (MRPL), the Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd. (MCF), and the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd., (KIOCL), have already requisitioned supply of this water. However, the KUIDFC has not included such a treatment plant under its Urban Infrastructure Development programme. Councillor Deepak Poojary said that the plan for the plant has been there for the last two years, but the corporation and the KUIDFC have not done anything about it. The corporation is also losing out on a chance to utilise recycled water in an environmentally friendly way and is also losing out on income, Mr. Poojary said. Officials of the KUIDFC said the study on the recycling of sewage water is under way and experts from Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad have shown interest in setting up such plants in Mangalore.

The proposal will have to be sent to companies located in those cities before November 30, he said. Senior Councillor Mahabala Maarla said that the KUIDFC's pace of work in vital sectors such as roads and drainage lines is bad, and in some places there are only two or three casual labourers working.

Shelved

Councillors were shocked when KUIDFC Chief Engineer Basha informed the house that the committee in charge of the slaughterhouse project for Mangalore had shelved the project. He said that the committee, comprising secretary-level officials of the State Government, had not received replies from MCC to various queries put forward by them.

The Mayor said that the matter will be taken up seriously as the city cannot let go of the slaughterhouse project, which was estimated to come up at a cost of Rs. 2.5 crores.

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