MCC Revenue officer transfer: Meeting decides to meet minister
Mangaluru City Corporation general body meeting
Mangaluru, August 30: The transfer of senior officer in Revenue department, Praveen Chandra Karkera in the illegal hoarding removal issue rocked the general body meeting of the City Corporation here on Thursday.
After heated argument and objection from the opposition party in the meeting chaired by Mayor Bhaskar K, it was resolved to take a delegation comprising the members of both ruling and opposition parties to the Minister demanding reposting the officer who was already transferred to the corporation as there was shortage of officers.
Raising the issue, opposition member Sudhir Shetty said that the corporation has shortage of officers due to which only 33 per cent tax was collected. There were plenty of illegal hoardings in the city. Around Rs 7.25 lakh revenue should have been collected from the market parking areas and there was Rs 10 lakh dues from the Surathkal market. Because of the shortage of officers to collect the taxes, the corporation has been facing financial crunch. At this time, a senior officer was transferred in illegal hoardings removal issue, he alleged.
Mayor Bhaskar said that the Commissioner has ordered to remove the illegal hoardings. If the officer was transferred in that case, first the Commissioner should have been transferred, he asked.
When corporator Madhukiran asked to continue the removal of illegal hoardings in the city, the mayor said that a decision to this effect was taken in the previous meeting. At this moment, there was verbal duels between the members of the ruling and opposition parties. Ruling party members demanded cancellation of the transfer. Later, the Mayor decided to meet the Minister and apprise him of the need to cancel the transfer of the officer.
Members object street lights problem
Cutting across the party line, the corporators raised voice against the street lights problem in the city. Member Abdul Rauf demanded action against the contractor for not maintaining the street lights in the city. Members Appi, Revathi, Ashok DK, Purushottam Chitrapura, Akhila Alva, Asha D’Silva, Azeez, Rathikala, Surendra and others joined their voice. Commissioner Muhammad Nazeer directed the officers that if it was due to contractor, cancel his tender and blacklist him.
Member Appi who welcomed the decision of the city corporation in naming the town hall after Kudmul Ranga Rao, asked the authorities to celebrate his birth anniversary.
Deputy Mayor Muhammad K, Standing Committee President Praveen Chandra Alva, Naveen D’Souza, Radhakrishna, Latha Salian and others were present.
House number under 112C: Operation from Aug 31
The issue of giving house number under 112C which had become an issue in the previous meeting, also drew the attention of the members this time. Though it was decided in the earlier meeting to give numbers to the houses measuring 1000 sq ft under 112C after spot inspection, no action was taken even after one month, members Premanand Shetty and Sudhir Shetty objected.
When the mayor said that numbers were being given for residential houses, members objected to it. But the revenue officer said that under 112C, they have received only 13 applications and spot inspection of seven applications were over. But member Deepak Poojary said that some people have misused the provisions and took number for commercial buildings under 112C.
After prolonged discussion over the issue, Commissioner Muhammad Nazeer said that as per the direction of the Mayor, spot inspections would be conducted for 1000 sq ft residential houses and they would be charged double tax and this process would start from Friday.
War of words between present and former mayors
Former mayor Kavitha Sanil asked “Is the city corporation has dual standard for the rich and the poor”?
She said that the city corporation authorities have demolished a house belonging to an auto driver on 1.5 cent land at Pachanady Ashraya colony. But no action was taken against the buildings which do not have parking spaces. Though the court has directed the authorities to demolish 52 buildings which do not have parking space, the city corporation officers have not acted on it. Why the city corporation demolished the house of the poor auto driver, she asked.
Mayor Bhaskar Moily asked as to why the former mayor did not demolish the buildings. But Kavitha said that when she was the mayor, lot of raids and actions were taken. When the mayor took it lightly, both of them engaged in war of words for some time.
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Agra man arrested for harassing, touching inappropriately Czech tourist visiting Taj Mahal
Agra, Apr 6 (PTI): A man was arrested for allegedly harassing and touching inappropriately a tourist from the Czech Republic visiting the Taj Mahal, police said on Sunday.
The alleged incident occurred on April 3 and the arrest was made after a thorough investigation, they said.
In a written complaint at the Tourist police station, the woman alleged that she was "touched inappropriately and harassed" while walking along the Shamshan Ghat Road around 1 pm, they added.
The police registered a case and began a probe, deploying multiple teams to nab the accused.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Taj Security) Syed Areeb Ahmed said, "A case was registered on the complaint of the foreign woman. Several teams were deployed to search for the accused. (Footage from) several CCTV cameras covering the area was scanned. After investigation, the accused Karan Rathore was arrested on Sunday."
The woman has identified Rathore as the accused and he has been taken into custody, the officer said.
