Mangalore, Feb 1: There are no alarm bells with regard to water shortage at Thumbe dam yet and the city is not likely to be hit by water scarcity this time around as severely as it did last year, said Dr. Harish Kumar, Commissioner, Mangalore City Corporation (MCC).
Replying to query on water availability, during the MCC monthly meeting, the Commissioner said that the MCC has make all necessary arrangements to tackle water woes this time, unlike last year.
During the meeting Corporator Mr. Naveen drew the attention of the council to the approaching dry season and asked as to whether the Corporation had taken any steps to ensure that the city is not hit by water scarcity.
In response, Mr. Kumar said that the severe water crisis that the city faced last year was due to lack of rain in January/February. “We expect showers this time. There is overflow at the dam at the moment. We have conducted a meeting of all dam owners and it has been made clear to them that they cannot release water without the permission of the Deputy Commissioner. Water scarcity should hopefully not be a problem this year”, he said.
The issue of resuming 'Tiger Operation' to tackle street vendors was raised by a councilor to which Mr. Kumar said that the MCC is not thinking of restarting the operation at present.
“The Supreme Court has said in its order that it is left to the respective state governments to formulate rules with regard to footpath vendors. The state government has not finalized regulations in this regard yet. Because of the 'Tiger Operation', a sense of anger had cropped up in people regarding our approach and we were being perceived as anti-poor”, the Commissioner said.
He however said that vendors need to be told about the proposed Vending and Non-vending zones. “They will have to be given identity cards from the MCC so that they can go about their selling in the permitted vending zones”, Mr. Kumar said.
Mayor Gulzar Banu, Amitha Kala, Deputy Mayor were present.
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