Was Poojary Sleeping When Hephsiba was Transferred? Monappa Bhandary

Was Poojary Sleeping When Hephsiba was Transferred? Monappa Bhandary

Mangaluru: BJP leader Monappa Bhandary held a press meet at the BJP office here, on June 13.

Addressing the mediapersons, Monappa Bhandary said that Mangalore City Corporation was a reputed corporation in the state, but after the Congress came to power, the administration in the Mangalore City Corporation is not in proper order. “After one year of the Congress coming to power, the council was formed and the Mayor was appointed. Since then, the MCC is not performing well. As soon as the Mayor was appointed, the Congress Councillors were divided into groups such as MLA group, Minister group, etc and attempted to transfer the then Commissioner Shanadi Ajith Kumar. The MLAs, Councillors and Ministers groups did not allow Shanadi to be the Commissioner. By hook or crook, when Shanadi was sent for training to Andhra Pradesh, they succeeded in transferring him. Later, they appointed Prasanna as Commissioner, but within 24 hours of taking charge, Prasanna was sent back on leave, and the Mangalore City Corporation was left without any Commissioner.”

“The then Mayor was acting like a King and Gokuldas Prabhu took over as the In-charge Commissioner without any signing authority. He did not get any authority to sign any papers for developmental work. Due to the infighting of the Ministers and MLAs groups, an IAS officer Hephsiba Rani Korlapati was appointed as Commissioner on January 1. We thought that the MCC will prosper and Mangaluru will develop fast, but within two months, the corporators started to fight demanding for the transfer of the Commissioner. Hephsiba is a transparent officer and she was working for 14 hours a day. We thought that with her leadership, the Mangalore City Corporation will prosper. But the development work was moving at a very slow pace.”

“Hephsiba was against corruption. For a good and transparent officer, there is no future. The duty of the MLAs and the Ministers was to convince the Councillors to retain the Commissioner. But due to the internal politics, Hephsiba was transferred to Vijayapura as CEO. This has proved that good officers cannot survive in Mangaluru.”

“Hephsiba has been transferred but no Commissioner has been appointed in her place. Now the rainy season has also started and the rain water drains in the city are not proper. The concrete roads which are being laid were sanctioned when the BJP was in power. There has been no development work during the Congress rule. The town hall work has been completely stopped by Nirmithi Kendra.”

The BJP demanded that a Commissioner be appointed soon to continue the development work.

“Mangaluru North Constituency MLA Bava got Rs 3 Crore directly from the State Government. Instead of getting the funds through the Mangalore City Corporation, he has violated the rules and misused the funds. He has distributed the funds within his family members without any estimation or tenders. When he went to the Mangalore City Corporation to sign the projects, Hephsiba refused to sign it as it is illegal. But Bava went to the CM with wrong information about Hephsiba and forced the CM to transfer her.”

“Janardhan Poojary was saying that Hephsiba is a transparent officer and she is carrying out her work with transparency and that she should not be transferred. He even said that he will go to the CM and Sonia to retain her, at any cost and that we have to retain such officers in Mangaluru. But when the Congress leaders transferred her, what was Poojary doing? Hephsiba was transferred but Poojary is still in deep sleep. Why did he not retain her in Mangaluru?”

“If the Congress government will not appoint a Commissioner for MCC within 10 days, the BJP will stage a protest.”

Former MLA Jayaram Bhat said, “I welcome the statement of Khader about the International Yoga Day, saying that it should not be given any religious colour. But at the same time, he has said that the BJP is backing SDPI, which is condemnable. Khader should instead investigate who offered money to SDPI members.”

BJP leaders Sudheer Shetty, Vijaykumar, Pratap Ravichandra Sureshchandra, Prabha Malini and Sanjay Prabhu were also present.