IMC councillor demands resigtion of top brass

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT

Itagar, May 27: Itagar Municipal Council (IMC) coordition committee chairman cum Ward 18 councillor Gora Lotak (BJP) has demanded resigtion of IMC Chief Councillor Kipa Kaku and her deputy Kipa Babu alleging the duo of misappropriating council’s funds.

Lotak while appealing the state government to constitute an enquiry over the alleged misuse of funds, informed that the IMC has had no audit and budgetary report for more than a year which simply shows the lack of transparency in taking decisions within the council.

While alleging that even the honorarium of councillors have not been released though the IMC does have the required money, Lotak lamented that despite rapid sanction of funds to the tune of lakh and crores by the government especially in terms of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the IMC headed by Kaku and Babu till date was unsuccessful in cleaning the Capital complex.

“Forget about cleaning the Capital. The IMC has not even been able to pay Rs 2500 to change the battery of the Tata Ace vehicle which collects garbage at my ward. It is been more than two months the vehicle is rotting in the Tata showroom which Babu owns,” Lotak alleged while talking to reporters here.

Highlighting the detailed project report (DPR) of storm water drains construction at harlagun, Nirjuli and Banderdewa which amounted to Rs 458.14 crores and interestingly did not include Itagar Lotak raised questions on whether Itagar was not a part of the IMC.

Also showing proof of tussle between chief councillor Kaku and her deputy Babu in which the latter has written a letter to the state government asking it to stop clearing funds for IMC, Lotak said, “People may think I being in the opposition am putting false allegations but the letter written by Babu a few months ago clearly shows that there is tussle between the ruling party as well. Wherever there is Congress, there is corruption.”

Further lamenting that despite IMC having more than 45 vehicles to clean the Capital complex most of them are in defunct stage and were not being maintained even though fund is available, the councillor alleged that the standing committee does not even provide funds for awareness campaigns whereas there is already a surplus fund which is allocated by state government.    Lotak also disclosed that as per provisions under Sub Section (I) of Section 36 and Section 41 of Aruchal Pradesh Municipal Act 2007, the governor has approved to borrow/deploy 60 posts in the engineering wing for Itagar and Pasighat but it has been almost four months and nothing has been initiated so far.”  Demanding for early recall of parking fees which he claimed was against the public, Lotak pointed out that the decision to collect parking fees from common public was nothing but to harass the citizens. “Out of the Rs 10 that is collected from the public Rs 8 goes to the collector and Rs 2 to the Municipality, so what sense does it make to collect it,” Lotak added.

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