Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat council on Monday passed a resolution opposing acquiring land for laying the natural gas pipeline of the GAIL (India) Ltd. in Kairangala, Phajir and Kurnadu villages in Mangaluru taluk. Mamata Gatti, a former president of the panchayat, who presently represents Kurnadu constituency, pressed for the resolution as the villagers opposed the Kochi-Mangaluru pipeline passing through their villages.

She claimed that none of the elected representatives have been taken into confidence before deciding to acquire the land for the project. The member claimed that the local bodies have not been informed about the project. Ms. Gatti claimed that people in the villages were not happy with the compensation package proposed by the government for acquiring the land. The council members agreed to pass the resolution without any opposition.

Vinod Pudu, a member said that the National Highways Authority of India has demolished two water storage tanks, an overhead and a ground level tank, adjacent to the highway near Padu Panambur sometime ago as they were posing threat to the safety of highway due to land slide.

Each of them had the capacity to store 50,000 litres. They had been constructed by the zilla panchayat. As the tanks have not been re-built, about 500 families in the gram panchayat jurisdiction were not getting water supply. Responding to it the Executive Engineer (water supply) of the zilla panchayat told the council that the MRPL has come forward to rebuild the tanks for Padu Panambur Gram Panchayat. The panchayat has been asked to send a proposal to this effect.

Meanwhile, nationalised banks not posting Kannada-speaking managers to rural branches continued to be debated in the council with members pressing for the posting of officials knowing Kannada. Other members alleged that people continued to face communication problem to know about government-sponsored schemes linked to banks.

They said as the branch managers took the decision on sanctioning loans they particularly should know Kannada.