HUBLI: The council of Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation on Thursday authorised the Commissioner to pledge property belonging to the corporation with banks to raise a loan for the Rs. 30-crore road development project.

After members, cutting across party lines, gave their consent to the move to raise funds for the ongoing road development works, Mayor Hanumanthappa Betageri declared the resolution as accepted.

Raising the issue, the former mayor Vijayanand Hoskoti said since no bank has come forward to grant loan to the corporation, the road development works have been delayed following non-payment of bills of contractors.

Leader of the Opposition Bharati Patil, members Ashok Jadhav, Chanabasappa Halyal, Laxman Uppar, Pandurang Patil, Viranna Savadi, D.K. Chauhan and others felt that the corporation should pledge its property in order to obtain the loan.

Members Ranga Baddi, Hosmani and Altaf Kittur urged the Mayor to include some roads in Old Hubli that have been left out in the project, to which the mayor agreed.

Although the State Government had given clearance to the corporation to raise loans from private/ nationalised banks for the Rs. 30-crore project, banks were not ready to extend loans.

Although the corporation had submitted details of its financial status and the improvement in its finances, increase in revenue and details of expenditure, banks were reluctant to grant loan for the works. After initial rounds of discussions, they made it clear that unless the corporation pledged its property, they would not give a loan.

Delegation

The council meeting also decided to take an all-party delegation of the corporation to Bangalore to urge the Chief Minister to prevail upon the Centre to include Hubli-Dharwad under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM).

After a discussion on the issue, which was raised by Mr. Hoskoti, the Mayor announced that he would call an all-party meeting shortly on the issue.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail