BENGALURU: In the last two months Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun has chaired nine council meetings, and the last one to be held on September 18 , at the fag end of her term, will be her tenth. But the decisions taken at the council meeting have been limited to solid waste management and garbage segregation. Justice Subhash B Adi, Chairman of the National Green Tribunal Monitoring Committee on Solid Waste Management had participated in the meetings.
The mayoral elections are scheduled to be held on September 27. After September 18, she will equal former Mayor Sampath Raj’s feat who also held 10 meetings between July and August, but none in September. Only Mayor Padmavathi, in 2016, had held a meeting in September in the last five years. However, between July and August, Padmavathi had chaired only three council meetings.
The council was not able to take many decisions because of repeated disruptions by the opposition leaders. They would create a ruckus over many proposals and even threaten to stage walkouts, Mayor Gangambike said. However, opposition leader Padmanabha Reddy of BJP said the last few council meetings have been only an eyewash and so will the last one.
This is because it has been scheduled to discuss administrative reports. But to assess the administration, at least 3-4 days are needed as each report will be about 200 pages. “So, it will not be possible to take any decisions again,” he said. Some councillors from the ruling alliance admitted that the council meetings served no purpose. This was primarily because they never started on time.
“Council meetings are scheduled to start at 11 am, but they would always start at 1 pm and end at 3.30 pm for lunch. Post lunch, attendance would be so thin that it can be counted on your fingers. So no decision can be taken. For each council meeting, not less than Rs 15 lakh is spent, making it a burden on the exchequer,” they said.