Town Hall ‘not ready’ yet for public functions

Town Hall ‘not ready’ yet for public functions

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Dec 3, 2015: The renovated Town Hall, fully air-conditioned now, is not yet ready for hosting public programmes as promised by Mayor Jecinta Vijaya Alfred.

The hall was opened with much fanfare on November 14 with a promise by the Mangaluru City Corporation authorities, both officials and the ruling Congress councillors, that people could hire it from December 1.

The Mayor went on record at a press conference that a fortnight was required from November 14 for “fine tuning” the works and the hall would be available for programmes later.

The Mayor, however, told The Hindu on Wednesday that now the hall would be rented out only after December 10 as “some works” were still pending. She said that the draft rentals revised upwards by the civic body were yet to get the approval of the Standing Committee for Taxation, Finance and Appeals and from the council.

As the code of conduct for the Legislative Council elections is in place, no meetings of the committee and the council (elected body) could be conducted till this month-end to approve the draft.

Asked on what basis the hall would be rented out after December 10, the Mayor said that “officials would take care of it”.

K.S. Linge Gowda, executive engineer in-charge of the renovation project, said that only wooden polishing works of the stage were pending. It would be completed by Thursday next. Later, it would be handed over to the revenue section in the corporation for management such as for allocating to public programmes. An official in the Revenue section said that now they only accepted applications relating to booking of programmes. No date has been allocated to those who have submitted applications.

Arguments

Two officials of the Department of Women and Child Welfare were seen arguing with a Revenue official at the corporation on Wednesday regarding allocating the hall for a programme on December 3. The Revenue official told them that the hall cannot be allocated as it is not ready and they were asked to contact the engineering section. The two officials told the Revenue official that if the hall was not allocated, they would bring disabled persons to the corporation and make them to sit in dharna.

Mr. Linge Gowda told The Hindu that the hall would be allocated to a specific government programme on December 3.

 

Courtesy : The Hindu