The general body of the Kalaburagi City Corporation has unanimously opposed the proposal by one of its members to allot residential plots to corporators in the city.
Just as corporator Sajid Kalyani presented the demand in the general body meeting held at Town Hall in Kalaburagi on Tuesday and appealed to the house to resolve in favour of it, Mayor Vishal Dargi and Corporation Commissioner Bhuvanesh Devidas Patil, with smiles on their faces, said that a decision on the matter will be taken after examining the legal provisions and feasibility.
However, senior corporator and former Mayor Syed Ahmed took serious exception to the very proposal itself by Sajid Kalyani and also the sort of assuring response that came from the Mayor and Commissioner to it.
“We are elected and sent to the civic body to discuss and address people’s problems and not to create better opportunities for ourselves. There are several poor people in our city who don’t have shelters,” he said.
”Instead of exploring the possibilities of providing housing to them, we are discussing the possibility of granting residential plots to ourselves. On the one hand, the civic body appears to be financially so poor that it has been unable to pay compensation of ₹5 lahk that it promised to a poor girl who was attacked by stray dogs,” he said.
“On the other hand, we are exploring the opportunities to get residential plots for ourselves. It is objectionable,” Mr. Ahmed said.
Though Mr. Kalyani tried to justify his demand and push for it, many elected members, one after the other, rallied behind Mr. Ahmed to oppose the proposal forcing the member [Mr. Kalyani] to stop pressing for it.
“Granting residential sites to civic body members is not correct even from a technical and legal point of view, apart from the moral standpoint. There have been no such instances in the past,” Yellappa Naikodi, another member said.
When more members expressed similar opinions, Mayor Dargi said that the very proposal will be dropped.
Audit report
The discussion on the audit report, which was short-lived, ended on a pathetic note as the officers concerned were little prepared on the matter. When a report on 2014-15 was taken up for discussion, the officer from the Accounts Department simply went on reading out the objections raised without explaining the actions taken. The disappointed members again took exception and forced the officer to stop.
“As per the audit report, there are serious lapses in the functioning of the civic body. Bills are cleared for the completed projects without third-party inspection. There are several issues about the recovery of money. No officer is prepared to answer questions raised by the members on the issue,” Mr. Naikodi said.
Mr. Devidas Patil, who was visibly upset with the poor preparedness of his officers, told the officers concerned to come up with a detailed report on each one of the objections raised in the audit report and the action taken to address them.
Mayor Dargi joined him in taking the officers to task and asked the Commissioner to take action against them.
“In the previous meetings also, we warned them against such unpreparedness. Still, they are here without any knowledge of the issue. They will come to the next meeting in the same way. We should take stringent action against them,” he said.
Upon the demand of various members, it was resolved to convene a special general body meeting to discuss the issue of the audit report and the officials of the Finance and Accounts department have been directed to attend the meeting with complete information.
Compensation
Just as the meeting commenced, Mr. Kalyani staged a dharna by sitting on the floor demanding the promised ₹5 lakh compensation to the victim of the stray dog attack. He said that the corporation has promised compensation and free treatment in a hospital for the girl but did not do anything to keep its promise.
He withdrew the agitation only after a resolution was passed to pay compensation within a week.
