Mangaluru: The Opposition members in Mangaluru City Corporation council expressed concern over sewage being directly let into Nethravathi river in Thumbe upstream at 18 places under Bantwal Town Municipal Council jurisdiction.

They demanded the mayor to urge the deputy commissioner to set up a treatment plant in Bantwal to treat the sewage. Speaking at the monthly council meeting here on Saturday, the Opposition members said tests have confirmed the presence of total coliform bacteria in alarming level in water that is being supplied to the citizens of Mangaluru. Even chicken waste is also being dumped directly to the river. Corrective steps need to be taken to check flow of sewage to the river, they said.

The members said the municipal council, which falls within Legislative Assembly constituency of District In-Charge Minister B Ramanath Rai, should have set up a sewage treatment plant. Now, only underground sewage pipelines have been laid in Bantwal town, they said. Mayor Harinath said water supplied to citizens is pure and potable. The people need not be anxious over it. The Opposition party members should not politicise the issue. If polluted water is supplied to the city, then people would have fallen sick the moment they consume it, he said. Later, the mayor said he will to visit the sites at Thumbe where sewage is directly being let into the river.

The corporators said the supply of water is irregular at Dambel, Ashokn Nagar and Jeppinamogaru. The officials told them that they will rectify the supply system within two to three days. On setting up desalination unit to supply water to industrial units, the mayor said superintending engineer will visit Chennai to examine the desalination unit there.

The corporators said that tipper vehicles owned by an elected representative outsourced by Unique Waste Processing Company, which is in charge of compost plant at Pacchanady often fails to cover the waste transported in tipper lorries and this affects road users and residents. This led to chaos and confusion in the council meeting with Opposition members demanding the mayor to name the owner of the tipper.

The Opposition leaders expressed displeasure over utilsing Rs 52 crore under AMRUT scheme for completing the mislinking works of the sewage lines. Opposition leader Roopa D Bangera said the funds should be utilised for the main project rather than incomplete works and demanded to revoke the decision to use the funds for mislinking works in Surathkal and Jeppinamogaru.

She said that she had written a letter to Urban Development Department secretary on the misuse of funds under AMRUT scheme and the latter has asked KUIDFC MD to examine the issue. Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer said KUIDFC was appointed as the nodal agency for implementing the scheme in Belagavi session. In the meeting there, it was decided to prepare an action plan by including the mislinking works, he added.

Standing Committee chairman Lancelot Pinto said filling of potholes has been taken up at 75 locations in MCC limits. MCC has submitted a proposal to the city police commissioner to lay humps at 170 locations and humps have been laid at 10 locations.