MP Shettar walks out of Cantonment Board meeting

Belagavi: Belagavi MP Jagadish Shettar staged a walkout from the general body meeting of the Belagavi Cantonment Board on Friday, protesting the board's stand on the allotment of land for a flower market.Raising the issue during the meeting, Shettar alleged that around 6,045sqm of land was allotted for the flower market stalls without obtaining approval from the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC). He said the decision resulted in a loss of several lakhs of rupees to the APMC and took officials to task over the matter.Shettar argued that any allocation of land within the cantonment limits should be made after taking the local MP into confidence and passing a formal resolution. He also insisted that the process should include inviting tenders and verifying the purpose for which the successful bidder intended to use the land.Alleging that the Board failed to follow due procedure, the MP proposed that the earlier resolution approving the allotment be immediately cancelled and replaced with a revised one.However, the proposal was rejected by Board president Brigadier Joydeep Mukherjee, who maintained that the resolution passed in the previous meeting would stand and could be taken up for consideration later.Condemning the Board's functioning, Shettar walked out of the meeting in protest.