Renovated Town Hall will not be ready soon
Mangalore Today News Network
Mangaluru, Jan 28, 2015: Usually a centre of social activities in the city, the Town Hall, closed for renovation for the past four months, will not be ready in the near future.
This came to light at the meeting of the Mangaluru City Corporation council on Tuesday. Neither Mayor Mahabala Marla nor Commissioner Hephsiba Rani Korlapati were ready to commit on when it would be ready.
The hall was expected to be ready in December-end for its golden jubilee celebration.
Leader of the Opposition in the council Premananda Shetty alleged that its renovation has been delayed due to a lack of coordination between B. Ramanath Rai, Minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada, J.R. Lobo, MLA, Mangaluru City South, and the Mayor.
He claimed that as per information with him, the MLA was ensuring that the work would not completed till the term of Mr. Marla ended (in March) as the MLA had not been taken into confidence before entrusting the work to Nirmiti Kendra. As a result the work has come to a halt.
Mr. Marla said: “It will not be over during my tenure as Mayor.”
When the Commissioner, without elaborating, said that there were “some technical issues” which would take a fortnight for solving, both the ruling and the Opposition members objected to taking such a long time. Chairman of the Standing Committee for Town Planning and Improvement D.K. Ashok Kumar also opposed it. But the Commissioner stuck to her reply.
The Mayor said that Nirmiti Kendra, which was entrusted the civil work to the tune of Rs. 1 crore, refused to take up the second stage works of interiors and acoustic works stating that it did not have technical experts to do it.
Mr. Marla wondered how then the agency has taken up other works costing up to Rs. 20 crore. After a debate over the issue, both the ruling and the Opposition members pressed that the kendra should not be entrusted with any more corporation work .
Finally the council decided to write to the government to de-recognise the agency for which the council could entrust works up to Rs. 1 crore without inviting bids and up to Rs. 2 crore with the permission of the government and without inviting bids.
Courtesy: The hindu