Mangaluru, Oct 1: The council of the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) has passed a resolution opposing the Yettinahole diversion project amid high drama.
However, the Mayor Jacinta Vijaya Alfred did not allow any debate on the matter. There was total commotion in the House with the councillors of the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP exchanging accusations against each other and vying to take credit for opposing the project.
The Mayor insisted that the members only read out, in brief, their views on the project.
When Roopa D. Bangera, a BJP councillor who raised the matter, chose to speak, many Congress members obstructed her and shouted that there was no need of a debate and the member could only read out the concluding remarks. A Congress councillor, Abdul Latheef, was heard opposing the project in the midst of this.
Enraged over the Mayor not permitting a debate over the matter, the BJP councillors rushed to the well of the House, picked up an argument with the Mayor and Congress members and squatted there for some time.
Ms. Bangera said that though she had raised the matter in last month’s council meeting, the Congress members did not support it and the matter had ended abruptly.
The Congress was not willing to pass a resolution against the project. Now the Congress was opposing the project to save its skin only after public outcry against the project, she said.
Taking offence at this, Purushotham Chitrapura, Deputy Mayor, said that it was he who had questioned the project in the National Green Tribunal, Southern Zone, Chennai, a year ago.
The lone member of the Communist Party of India (Marxists), Dayananda Shetty, said that it was not proper to oppose a project without enough knowledge about it. There was a need to hold a debate outside the House. The project was the State government’s decision and it would take a call on it, he said.
The Mayor said that the government would be communicated about the council’s opposition to the project and it was a unanimous decision.
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