The Hindu : Karnataka News : Differences between CMC, Police Department to the fore

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Karnataka

Karnataka

Differences between CMC, Police Department to the fore

Correspondent

The councillors object to work on police station building on municipality land

CHIKMAGALUR: The simmering differences between members of the Chikmagalur City Municipal Council and the Police Department were out in the open here on Thursday.

The council members objected to the commencement of work on the new police station building on M.G. Road on land belonging to the municipality.

Vegetable market

The site in question is about 15,000 sq.ft. of prime land that earlier housed the Krishna Rajendra vegetable market.

The market was closed down after a portion of the building was demolished for road widening a few years ago.

Council members including municipal president C.P. Krishna who visited the spot after learning that excavation work had commenced from Wednesday night were outraged and stopped the work.

They knocked down the metal sheet covering the entrance and shouted slogans against the police.

The Police Department had submitted a proposal through the Deputy Commissioner of Chikmagalur district to the Director of Municipal Administration in February last, requesting that the existing police station premises on M.G. Road be exchanged with the K.R. Market site.

But the Government did not approve the proposal.

The order issued by the Government was vacated during Governor’s Rule, and pressure was brought on the Municipal Commissioner to change the khata of the site concerned .

Emergency meeting

The newly elected council called an emergency meeting in January and unanimously resolved that the khata change was irregular and it should be restored.

But the Police Department went ahead with its plan and conducted “guddali pooja” last month without applying for a licence to construct the building. They applied for a licence only on Wednesday just before commencing work.

Speaking to presspersons, Mr. Krishna pointed out that neither the title nor possession of the property had been transferred to the police.

He said that the exchange of property deed had not been registered and the police had been informed that they were tresspassing on municipal property.

Documents sought

The Deputy Commissioner had suspended the resolution of the council.

The matter was pending before the Director of Municipal Administration who had written to both the parties to produce the documents in their possession within 30 days, he said.

Mr. Krishna said that a delegation of council members had met Deputy Commissioner Krishnaswami and apprised him of the situation.

Police officials had threatened to register cases against the council members, he alleged.

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