Mangaluru: The issues of drinking water and pushcarts figured in the general body meeting of the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) here on Wednesday.

Shyam Prasad, councillor, said some areas in the city were already suffering from water scarcity. Even where water was being supplied, there was no pressure. Even if the CMC wants to supply water on alternate days, there should be adequate water pressure, he said.

Ganesh K., Assistant Engineer, said the water requirement in the city was 30 million litres per day (MLD). At present, about 25 MLD was being pumped by the pumping station at Baje dam, he said.

When a councillor pointed out that the CMC should clean a big well at Beedinagudde so that water from there could be used during summer, D. Manjunathaiah, CMC Commissioner, said the CMC had already identified a well each at Kodavoor and Doddanagudde. More such water sources were being identified to deal with water scarcity expected during summer, he said.

Ramesh Kanchan, councillor, demanded to know the action taken by the CMC to check the pushcarts as they were congesting high traffic-density roads in the city. Mr. Manjunathaiah said that the CMC had already identified ‘vending zones’ in the city where these pushcarts could be relocated. But the attempt was being hampered by some organisations, who were claiming to help the pushcart operators, he said.

Prashanth Bhat, councillor, said that some mobile telephone companies were setting up mobile towers without the CMC’s permission. Action should be taken against them, he said.

Earlier, the meeting saw a stormy start as the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members, stormed into the well of the House demanding documents on the renovation of Visveswaraya Market. They argued with CMC president Meenakshi Bannanje on the issue.

There was pandemonium for 20 minutes as both ruling Congress and BJP councillors shouted at one another. The matter ended with the documents being provided to the BJP councillors.

But, Sandhya Kumar, CMC vice-president, took exception to the BJP councillors for alleging that Ms. Bannanje had participated in irregularities, and demanded an apology.

This led to another round of heated exchanges between the Treasury and Opposition benches. Ms. Kumari even staged a dharna in the well of the House for a few mintues, before Ms. Bannanje convinced her to return to her seat.