BJP councillors of the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) launched a two-day overnight strike opposing the alleged step-motherly treatment to the HDMC by the State government here on Tuesday. The party councillors and workers staged a protest demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here and shouted slogans against the State government and the Ministry of Municipal Administration for delaying releasing pension fund amount of ₹ 136 crore that has been pending for long.
The former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, BJP MLAs Arvind Bellad, Amrut Desai and others led the agitation.
Addressing the gathering, Mr. Shettar said that whenever a person from South Karnataka became Chief Minister, HDMC has faced hardships. The former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah needlessly halted releasing pension amount to HDMC for three years and landed the civic body into trouble. It is a pity that councillors of the ruling party had to resort to protest opposing the State government delaying releasing pension fund amount, he said.
Blaming Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy for procrastinating in releasing pension fund amount that the HDMC is entitled to receive from the State government, Mr. Shettar said that the Chief Minister should explain the reasons for not releasing the pension fund amount. The government was lacking political will to resolve this issue. Interestingly, the Union government has enhanced the grants by three folds. Still the State government was having two minds over releasing the pending money to the HDMC. The BJP would intensify the agitation if the State government continues with its the step-motherly attitude and Mr. Kumaraswamy fails to resolve the issue at the earliest, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, senior HDMC councillor Pandurang Patil said that HDMC has been running form pillar to post to get the pending pension amount released since long. Mr. Siddaramiah too had assured releasing the amount several times but did not keep his words. The Congress-Janata Dal(S) coalition government led by Mr. Kumaraswamy too has continued with its step-motherly attitude towards HDMC and it seems to be reluctant to release the pension amount. The Chief Minister was giving undue preference for Bengaluru, Mandya, Mysuru and other southern districts at the cost of other districts, especially those in North Karnataka.
Mr. Bellad and Mr. Desai, who addressed the meeting, too condemned the State government delaying releasing the pension fund money and said that the State government should not procrastinate in taking an early decision in the matter.