MCC meeting: Decision on 24-houre water supply put off

Mangalore July30: The council of Mangalore City Corporation at its meeting on Friday chose to defer a decision on the proposed round-the-clock water supply in the city.

The council deferred discussion on the issue without any debate over the scheme, which is to be implemented under public-private partnership.

Whip in the council Sudhir Shetty Kanur said the council had been postponing the agenda as it required deliberation before choosing one of the three bids mentioned on the agenda.

But sources in the Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP) told The Hindu that BJP was not keen on implementing the proposal in the next two years because of its political fallout. With only two years left for term of the present BJP-led Council, the party was against facing the elections after increasing the water tariff, which is inevitable if the scheme were to be implemented. The BJP is apprehensive that this might prove costly for the party in the election.

Sources said that if it approved the proposal now, it would the take a year for the proposal to become a rality. Then only a few months would be left for the elections.

Hence, the party was cautious in implementing the scheme in a hurry.

A 27-member team of the corporation had visited Hubli last month to study the 24 x 7 water supply scheme implemented in select wards on a trial basis.

At its meeting on Friday, the council passed a proposal authorizing Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) to conduct a study and implement a comprehensive project on reducing energy consumption by streetlights. The study would cover changing streetlight to save energy, and proper maintenance and monitoring the maintenance through information technology tools. The KUIDFC would be the nodal agency for implementing the project under the Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Management Project (KUDCEMP).

Ward Committees

The council did not take any decision on constituting ward committees in the city.

The agenda to this effect had proposed making 20 zones by distributing 60 wards under it for constituting the committees. The council postponed its decision to this effect without any debate.

The council ratified the approval given in last month's council meeting of reserving Rs. 3 crore for constructing a railway overpass at Mahakalipadpu railway level-crossing It ratified the decision of depositing the fund with the Southern Railway