Mutturaj Road, linking Outer Ring Road and Bank Colony, will be widened.
On Thursday, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike went back on its word. Although it has earlier promised that all road-widening projects in the core city area would be put on hold, mayor SK Nataraj, at the meeting of the council, sanctioned funds for another road widening project along Mutturaj Road, a stretch between Outer Ring Road and Bank Colony bus stop, at a cost of Rs3.17 crore.
This road widening project, along with eight other projects, were passed on Thursday and a total of Rs24 crore was sanctioned for these works; there was no debate at all in the matter. Corporators were busy trying to resolve the taunts hurled by a BJP corporator at Congress corporator Munirathna Naidu.
Various bodies of citizens have been staging vigorous protests against the road-widening projects, alongside those who resist such a move as they stand to lose property. There are 227 road-widening projects planned, and 37,000 private properties are likely to be affected. Nearly 1.25 lakh people stand to lose their homes or shops.
The leader of the ruling party in the BBMP, Katte Sathyanarayana, maintained that the Mutthuraj Road project is not a new one, and that it had been approved in the Comprehensive Development Plan of 2009.
Former mayor and BBMP finance committee member K Chandrashekar expressed unhappiness, saying that according to the supplementary act, any subject presented in the council ought to get the approval of the standing committee. He added that the finance committee had not been consulted before the matter was presented in the council. He explained that the mayor’s approval of the nine projects went against the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act.
Under the rules, the finance and taxation committee members ought to be fully aware of projects presented before the council.
This was not done. Members of the council too were not given a copy of projects that were placed before the council for approval on Thursday, breaching required procedure, explained Chandrashekhar.
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