Opposition stages walkout at BCC council meeting

Caption: The general body meeting of the BCC was held on SaturdayBelagavi: The members of the opposition in the Belagavi City Corporation (BCC) walked out of the council meeting on Saturday. Congress members alleged that the agenda of the meeting was not provided before the meeting began. They said they will continue to protest until they get justice. Amid these developments, the ruling BJP members passed a unanimous condemnation resolution opposing the Congress's policy of not supporting the Nari Shakti Bill in Parliament.MLA Abhay Patil said that Congress members have a very indifferent attitude towards development issues. "They boycotted the Lok Sabha without supporting the Nari Shakti Bill. The same happened here, too," he said.Various issues were discussed during the meeting, including the agents' harassment and officials' corruption in e-property registration, handing over the memorial of freedom fighter Gangadhar Rao Deshpande and the BUDA-developed Ramateerthnagar area to BCC.Sandeep Jiragyal, a council member, raised the alleged massive corruption in property registration. He demanded that an investigation be conducted and guilty officials be punished. Corporators Veena Srishail Bijapur and former deputy mayor Vani Joshi supported this.Outrage against Marathi dailyIt was decided to submit a memorandum to the govt through the information department, demanding action against a Marathi daily that published a news story on the day of Ambedkar's birth anniversary under the headline ‘A heartfelt tribute to Ambedkar'. Corporator Shrishail Kamble, who raised the issue, said that strict action should be taken against those who insulted Ambedkar.Handing over Bhavan and Nagar issuesThe issue of transferring the freedom fighter Deshpande Sabha Bhavan and Ramateerth Nagar to BCC was raised during the corporation meeting. Deputy mayor Hanumant Kongali said that instead of handing over Bhavan to the BCC for maintenance, instructions be given to the Kannada & culture department to take over the responsibility of maintenance.Mayor Preeti Kamkar, BCC Commissioner M Kartik, senior officials Siddu Hulloli, Laxmi Nippanikar, UdayKumar Talwar and Anand Deshpande were present.