The discussion that followed a starred question raised by Opposition Congress leader, M Nagaraj, about the “squandering of public money and to curb the wastage of money” on the beautification process, BBMP commissioner Siddaiah proposed tree parks instead of landscaping and beautification. However, he left the decision to the Council’s wisdom.
While the proposal to have tree parks was welcomed by and large, corporators pointed out that some wards did not even have a single park.
Even the Mayor got into the fray and decided to award “at least one park to each ward” before supporting the tree parks idea.
Nagpura corporator N Harish said that 16 parks in his ward were withering for lack of upkeep. Byrasandra corporator N Nagaraj of the BJP echoed the sentiment arguing that beautification was eating into the BBMP coffers.
The chairman of standing on Horticulture Ranganna said that about 50 parks across the City had fallen on bad days due to the lack of upkeep and demanded allocation of funds for their revival.
Opposition walkout
The cold war between the ruling party in the State and the Opposition cast its shadow on the Council, with the entire Opposition staging a walk-out, protesting against the the Appachu Ranjan Committee recommending the suspension of 15 MLAs at the Vidhan Soudha for being part of the “ruckus” which occured in the Assembly last year.
Slogan shouting
Shouting slogans against the BJP state government, the Congress and the JD(S) staged the walk out towards the end of the special Council session after taking part in the discussions earlier in the day.
However, the Council wore a deserted look when the subjects were approved by the BJP in the absence of the opposition.