CUTTACK: Uproar marked the 24th council meeting of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) on Friday after Congress and BJP corporators vehemently opposed the clearance of bills for last year’s Baliyatra.
The ruckus occurred after city engineer Atanu Samant put the bills up in the meeting and attempted to pass them by deducting 40 per cent of the amount spent during the festival. While BJD corporators insisted on passing the bill, Congress and BJP corporators opposed and demanded an inquiry report.
While the war of words continued, BJP corporator of ward no 45 Gopal Behera threw a glass on the ground, following which a broken piece hit BJP corporator of ward no 20 Laxmidhar Behera and injured him.
Congress corporator Santosh Bhola argued that as per the decision at the previous council meeting, a third party inquiry was to be conducted into the Baliyatra expenditure. “The bills should have been passed only after submission of the inquiry report. Instead of that, the civic body in connivance with some BJD corporators is trying to pass the bill by deducting 40 per cent of the expenditure amount to hide massive corruption,” he alleged.
BJP corporator Gagan Ojha, meanwhile, pointed out that though a laser light system costs around Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh, the CMC initially claimed to have spent Rs 96 lakh for the purpose and now is trying to pass it off as Rs 50 lakh towards hiring charges.
“Similarly, the corporation showed that it spent Rs 32 lakh towards erection of two welcome gates and has now revised it to Rs 20 lakh. Unless a third party inquiry is conducted, we will not allow passing of the bills. If required, we will move the Vigilance or take the matter up with the government,” he said.