GUNTUR: The haphazard manner in which cellars of buildings that do not have parking space have been demolished and the revenue leakage of the Guntur Municipal Corporation were hot issues of discussion at the council meeting here on Monday.

As soon as the meeting began in the morning, 18th division corporator Avuthu Bharathi staged a walk-out protesting against Mayor Kanna Nagaraju's absence at the Praja Patham programme held in her ward. She alleged that he had rejected her invitation and had participated in the adjacent ward's programme. Noisy scenes were witnessed when the 39th division corporator Vadlamani Rajyalaskhmi raised the question of parking in cellars. She wanted to know from the authorities about the number of cellars that have been identified and as to how many of them were modified suitably.

Municipal Commissioner D. Rama Rao said that 202 cellars were identified and a meeting was held with the building owners on February 1 urging them to make necessary changes to enable parking of vehicles after demolition. Unauthorized constructions were removed from 176 cellars while only seven cellars were according to the pre-approved plan. Thirteen were in court litigation and six were located on narrow roads, hence unsuitable for parking, so the question of demolition for them does not exist, the Commissioner said. The members found fault with the municipal authorities for failing to implement the parking rule.

Ad hoardings

Another hotly debated issue was the leak in municipal revenue through advertisement hoardings. The members wanted to know how many new hoardings had come up in the city and what was the revenue accrued from these.

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