Land acquisition soon: MCC

Mangalore, July 1: The Mangalore City Corporation has acquired 7.23 acres of land at a cost of Rs 7.5 crore for the construction of private bus stand in Pumpwell and the rest of the land will be acquired soon. The project does not aim at building a bus stand or a bus stop, but the Mangalore City Corporation has planned to develop it as a transportation hub.

Replying to many queries of the Corporators regarding the delay in the construction process, MCC Commissioner Dr K N Vijay Prakash said in the MCC general body meeting on Thursday that the plan has been laid for the transportation hub with foresightedness.

The plan has been laid in such a way that the bus stand will serve the need for another 25 years. Out of Rs 5 crore of the Chief Minister's fund which has been reserved for traffic management, Rs 2 crore has been reserved for the construction of the Pumpwell bus stand. The fund will be utilised for the initial works, informed the Commissioner.

No protests in MCC

In one of the major decisions, MCC Mayor Praveen announced the ban on protests and dharnas in the city corporation limits.

Even as the street vendors continued staging the protest outside the MCC, against the MCC's eviction drive on Thursday, the Mayor strictly announced that the staging of protests will be strictly banned in the MCC premises henceforth.

“Those who wish to stage the protest must stage it in the public area,” he declared.

Though the Mayor affirmed that the MCC would not stop the street vendors' eviction drive with the help of 'Civic Tiger' at any cost, he said he would discuss the issue with the Deputy Commissioner and the District-in-Charge Minister and come out with a decision within 15 days.

Taking note of the nine faults in the tender process of streetlight work, the MCC Commissioner informed that he has sent notice to the Executive Engineer and the Chief Accounts Officer to submit a detailed report of the issue, based on which he would take the decision.

He also said the State government has ordered to introduce energy saving concept in the MCC limits and KUIDFC has been nominated as the nodal agency to take up the work. Once the agenda is submitted before the Council, the work proposal will be started, he said.

Oppn members walk out

The meeting witnessed a dramatic turn as the members of the opposition party boycotted the meet and waked out of the meeting hall. The tiff occurred between the two parties as the opposition party members raised their voice against the submission of agenda on the land acquisition for widening Yeyyadi-Kuntalpadi-Shaktinagara road. They urged the Mayor to place the agenda before the Standing Committee for City Development, discuss the issue and then pass the agenda.

When Chief Whip Sudhir Shetty ignored the opposition and proceeded with other agendas, Corporator Ashok Kumar D K tried to pull the mike which led to a verbal fight. And it ended with the opposition members walking out of the hall.