District administration responsible for the water problem: BJP

Udupi: “The people have been pressurizing our party representatives to get their work done. But unfortunately, the newly elected members have not been administered oath of office even eight months after their election. People are getting frustrated at the BJP leaders, as they feel that BJP is in power in the local body with majority councillors representing BJP,” said District BJP president, Mattaru Ratnakar Hegde, speaking at the press meet held at the BJP office Kadiyali here on May 10 and pointed out that there are 31 BJP councilors out of 35 in the local city municipal council.

The city is facing severe water shortage with some wards failing to get water supply for the last 7-8 days. Udupi MLA has made arrangements to supply water through tankers, spending money from his own pocket, said Hegde.

Blaming the district administration for lacking the will to handle the situation Mattaru said, “The district administration should have begun the process of water administration since the month of January this year. The district administration has now started responding to the problem but the deputy commissioner (DC) and municipal commissioner are owning callous attitude.”

Speaking on the issue of the finding of the wreckage of the deep sea trawler ‘Suvarna Tribhuja’ near Malvan, Mattaru said, “Union defense minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, MP, Shobha Karandlaje, and Udupi MLA Raghupati Bhat, have put lot of efforts towards locating the boat. It was confirmed by naval team too. Therefore, those fishermen families should get maximum compensation from the government. We will visit New Delhi in an effort to maximize compensation amount, although we are aware that any amount of compensation cannot match the loss suffered by the families. A precious life cannot be compensated in terms of money. If the boat is lifted out from the bottom of the sea, there is a possibility of getting more clues about what would have happened on that fateful day with the boat and its fishermen.”

“Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, and H D Deve Gowda family have been going from one resort to another one, besides getting busy performing puja at temples. As such the administrative machinery has collapsed in the state. But the chief minister is away and has not been responding to requests for distribution of drought relief fund,” cliamed Ratnakar Hegde.

“Another burning issue is sand crisis, which has got stranded at the point where it had reached earlier. We do not have power in our hands, otherwise we would have solved it,” he added.

“The DC has not been allowing the offices of the zilla panchayat president and others to be functional, citing election code of conduct. She has not returned zilla panchayat president’s car too. If rain comes, sand cannot be extracted. As zilla panchayat office stands closed, even emergency applications cannot be disposed off,” said Mattaru.