Mangaluru: Several developmental works under the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) have been halted due to non-payment of dues to the contractors who have taken up the development works.

This was revealed during the last general meeting of the MCC, on Wednesday, December 26. Corporator Dayananda Shetty raised the issue of non-payment of money to the contractors, claiming that several development works have been stopped due to this reason.

Supporting the claim, MCC opposition leader Premananda Shetty informed that over Rs 50 crore has been kept pending to the contractors, which forced contractors to stop their work. “As the contractors have not been paid the amount over the last 14 months, immediate measures should be taken to clear the payment “, he stressed.

MCC Commissioner Mohammed Nazir admitted that payment is pending for over a year. “Payment will be cleared after tax collection is completed. The entire process will be completed only by April”, he added.

The meeting was stopped when the BJP and the Congress corporators quarrelled on disbursing grants. When Congress Corporator Shashidhar Hegde claimed that all the MCC members received proper grants and that there are no problems pertaining to water, road and other basic amenities, BJP corporator Poornima and other corporators took Shashidhar Hegde to task. They argued that most of the wards in the MCC lacked basic facilities.

The issues like underground drainage system, solid waste management among other issues were also discussed in the meeting.