Mangalore: CPI(M) organized a massive protest in front of the MCC office on August 27, Monday against BJP for its failure to keep up its promise of providing transparent, clean, and corruption-free governance to the people of Karnataka.

Addressing the protestors, CPI(M) secretary B Madhava said that the BJP had promised to cancel the self-assessment tax (SAS) implemented by the Congress, but had failed to do. To make matters worse, they continued collecting SAS.

He also said that civic body is now a puppet in the hands of real estate and builder mafia, he said that, although 3,500 poor people have applied for houses, the civic body has not provided houses to any beneficiary.

He also said that the BJP-ruled Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) has also raised drinking water tariff from Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 and decreased maximum water usage to 15,000 litres. When the CPI (M) and DYFI organized a silent protest march against this, the police used their lathis on them and several women and children were injured. The CPI (M), however, refused to accept defeat and continued to protest, as a result of which the drinking water tariff was reduced to Rs. 65, he claimed.

The MCC has not even completed the drainage system project under the KUDCEMP scheme, he stated, adding that the MCC is concretizing city roads and cancelling auto rickshaw stands under the excuse of beautifying the city and making it greener.

CPI (M) workers J. Balakrishna Shetty, Vasanth Achary, Dayanand Shetty, and Jayanthi Shetty were also present.