Mysuru: After a prolonged discussion, the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) General Council Meeting on Monday, approved construction of houses for Pourakarmikas at Malalawadi in city.

The meeting resolved to construct 158 houses for permanent MCC Pourakarmikas in one-and-a-half-acre land coming under Survey Numbers 99, 100, 101/2, 102, 103, 108/1, 71/1 and 71/2. 

The houses will be constructed under the Pourakarmika Gruha Bhagya Scheme, with the State Government funding Rs.6 lakh and Rs.1.5 lakh by beneficiaries, to be made up from the Housing For All Scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Scheme grants. 

Opposition leader B.V. Manjunath alleged that there were many irregularities in issuing khatas. Citing an example, Manjunath said that the then Deputy Commissioner (DC) had ordered alienation of 3.34 guntas of land coming under Nachanahallipalya-J.P. Nagar Sy. No. 159/1 to 12 persons on Aug.12, 1985 for construction of houses.

Accordingly, J.P. Somashekar of Jakkalli in H.D. Kote taluk formed a site in the said land and got the khata done in the MCC Zone-2 office on Apr.9, 2008. Later on, the site was bifurcated in favour of Somashekar’s son J.S. Mahadevaprasad.

Thereafter, based on the bifurcation certificate, the MCC Zone-2 office registered khata in the name of J.S. Mahadevaprasad on July 26, 2016. But now, the MCC Zone-2 authorities are saying that it is a fake khata and there are no documents to prove that the khata was indeed done, Manjunath alleged and said that there are similar cases in MCC Zone-1 office too. He demanded a probe into the matter and action against all those found guilty.

A few Corporators expressed disappointment over the Government’s direction to install 2,059 LED bulbs in street lights. Maintaining that 2,059 bulbs were not enough, the Corporators demanded sanction of           more LED bulbs.

Taking exception to MCC’s action of engaging a private agency to conduct a LED bulb survey at a whopping cost of Rs.35 lakh, the Corporators, led by B.V. Manjunath and Shivakumar of BJP, wondered why the MCC had engaged the private agency, when there was a separate electrical section in the MCC, which would have done the job.

They further alleged that the MCC authorities had not taken the Council approval for engaging the private agency.

Opposition leader B.V. Manjunath questioned what all had happened to the Rs.7.5 crore collected by MCC from vacant site owners since 2011 for cleaning the sites. Alleging that the MCC had not taken up the site cleaning job, Manjunath wanted to know whether the MCC had used the collected money for some other purpose.

Reacting to Manjunath, MCC Zone-3 Assistant Commissioner B.C. Shivananada Murthy said that a Zone-wise list of vacant sites is being prepared and tenders will be invited for the cleaning job in a week.

BJP Member Sunanda Palanetra said that four Petrol Bunks in city were functioning from MCC-owned sites, out of which two had become defunct — one at Ramaswamy Circle and the other right behind the MCC Office.

Suggesting that the MCC can have Zonal offices in such sites, which are lying waste, she stressed on the need for the MCC to cut unnecessary spending and thus save revenue.

Pointing out that Mayor Pushpalatha Jagannath has appointed J. Mahesh as the in-charge MCC Superintending Engineer (SE), Sunanda suggested the Mayor to write letter to the Government seeking to confirm his post. However, Shivanandamurthy said that there was no such provision and J. Mahesh will continue only until the Government appoints a regular SE.

Deputy Mayor Shafi Ahmed and other officials attended the meeting.