Mangaluru: An interim report of the former Commissioner of Mangaluru City Corporation  Hephsiba Rani Korlapati on the status of Town Hall renovation, that is currently frozen, has blown the lid off a can of worms with the officer unearthing ‘major lapses’ in meeting procedural requirements and violation of an order. The report was submitted to the Secretary of the Urban Development Department, and is available with Newskarnataka.com

The five decade old Town Hall which has hosted a number of political and cultural events was in dire need of a revamp, and the MCC bit the bullet in September 2014, in order to get it ready, well in time for its golden jubilee on 29 December, 2014. But sadly that was not to be.

Renovation

In October 2014, the  MCC decided to renovate the Town Hall in two phases. The first phase of works involved granite flooring, green room, VIP room construction, toilet etc, and the second phase, included works related to AC (Air Conditioning), repair of auditorium seats etc. The Town Hall was closed  from September 15, 2014 in order to facilitate renovation.

The MCC Council  had entrusted both the phases of works to the Dakshina Kannada Nirmiti Kendra (Nirmithi Kendra), a government agency. It is generally believed that while the Kendra carried out the first phase at a cost of Rs. 99.75 lakh, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) denied approval for it to carry out the second phase of works pegged at Rs. 98 lakh.

The decision to renovate the Town Hall was taken during the tenure of Mahabala Maarla as the Mayor. The Commissioner’s post was however vacant then. The 2011 batch IAS officer Hephsiba Rani Korlapati who was posted as Commissioner here on January 1 this year had prepared the intermin report on the status of Town Hall renovation during her short tenure of less than six months (Korlapati was  transferred on June 12).

A large part of the interim report by Hephsiba attempts to list the lapses that occurred during the period from October 2014, when the work commenced, until December when the renovation works came to an abrupt halt.

Procedural lapses

The interim report dated  June 4, 2015, categorically states that the Nirmithi Kendra  which was given the responsibility to undertake the first phase renovation works at a cost of Rs. 99.75 lakhs, failed to obtain the mandatory technical sanction from the competent authority, i.e Superintendent Engineer of  MCC. It says that Nirmithi Kendra went ahead with the work despite not getting the required technical sanction.

The MCC released Rs. 50 lakh to the Nirmithi Kendra  to carry out the first phase of works after Dakshina Kannada  Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim is also the Chairman of the Kendra, gave an official go ahead to commence the renovation of Town Hall. However, according to the interim report, the Nirmithi Kendra,  till the date of the report (4th June 2015) had not presented the ‘utilization certificate’ for money spent on the executed work.

A status report on repair and renovation of Town Hall, dated 5th June 2015 (available with Newskarnataka.com) by the Project Director of Nirmithi Kendra and filed with the MCC, claimed that the Nirmithi Kendra had executed work up to Rs. 40 lakhs and that the ‘utilization certificate’ was attached to the report. The status report stated that the Nirmithi Kendra had commenced the first phase of works in the second week of November 2014.  

However, when Newskarnataka.com contacted Hephsiba in order to corroborate Nirmithi Kendra official’s claim, the former Commissioner asserted that no such utilization certificate was filed with the MCC. When questioned in this regard, Rajendra Kalbavi, Project Director, DK Nirmithi Kendra admitted to Newskarnataka.com, that the ‘utilization certificate’ was not yet filed before the MCC as there are many procedures required to be followed for this. “Utilization certificate cannot be given in one piece of paper,” Kalbavi argued.

DC declines to approve Second Phase

Interestingly, according to the report, DC Ibrahim declined to approve the second phase of renovation works estimated at Rs. 98 lakhs after the Project Director Rajendra Kalbavi told the DC that there was staff crunch in Nirmithi Kendra and that it was unable to shoulder the work. Confirming this, the DC while speaking to Newskarnaraka.com said, “I did not give nod for the second phase of work owing to technical obstacles put across to me by the Project Director.”

The report of the former Commissioner specifically points towards this and said that this was a key reason for the delay in the work which was scheduled to be completed by December 26th 2014 in time for the Golden Jubilee Celebration.  When pressed to comment on other aspects of the report, the DC said, “I do not wish to comment further without reading the report.”

The council had decided to handover second phase of works to the Kendra on October 29, 2014. However when the DC was unwilling, a miffed council, in February 2015, passed a resolution that “hence forth no work from the MCC shall be given to Nirmiti Kendra.” This was perhaps, another reason for the subsequent delay.

Violation of order
Astonishingly, the Nirmithi Kendra undertook some portions of work earmarked for the second phase in the first phase itself. The interim report mentions, that the Air Conditioning and related works were executed by in violation of  the order of the DC. Besides, the  old seats had been removed to install new seats, and the base foundation to place seats was also  flattened. The Nirmithi Kendra went ahead with construction of new base foundation for seats till the day it stopped working, without bringing this to the notice of the MCC. The council had not decided on replacement of seats, and instead had proposed repairing them, the report states.

The Project Director Rajendra Kalbhavi said that he had obediently followed orders of the DC. Reacting to accusations of violation of orders in the report, he said, since the council had already decided to give the second phase works to the Kendra, the agency went ahead with the second phase of works.

Who’s to be blamed for the mess?

“I, with the help of officials of the MCC found out that Nirmiti Kendra has caused Rs. 1.5 crore (rough calculation) damage to the Town Hall, even as they violated the order of the DC,” the former Commissioner disclosed, even though this is not mentioned in the four page report. She further claimed that despite there being an official ruling passed by the councillors in the month of February, 2015 that work will not be given to the Kendra, councillors in the month of March pressed her to complete procedures necessary to hand over works to it.

The former Commissioner added that even though repair work (not replacement) on the hall’s seats had been reserved for the second phase, the Nirmithi Kendra removed all the chairs thereby causing  damage to the public property. She further wondered, why the Nirmithi Kendra declined to take up the second phase of works, that is similar to the first phase. Despite all these lapses on the part of other stakeholders, the Corporators blamed her for the delay, she lamented. She asserted that all she did was streamline the processes to construct a model Town Hall.

The former Commissioner of the MCC, Hephsiba also said that she had written a letter to the Secretary of the Urban Development Department requesting a Lokayukta enquiry into the whole Town Hall mess. Hephsiba opined that removal of chairs without any order caused the death of functioning of the Town Hall. Otherwise, she continued saying, hall would have been remained functional for some more days for the public to use till crux of the works commenced. 

However, ex-Mayor Mahabala Marla, whose term ended in March 2015, said that DC should clarify why the second phase of work was not given to the Nirmithi Kendra. When asked whether due procedures were followed, he said all required procedures were followed. When this scribe narrowed down the discussion to the report, intriguingly he argued, “If all legal procedures were followed, no works can be done.”

The Mayor Jacinta Alfred, on the other hand passed the  blame on the MCC Commissioner. She contended that “Hephsiba was sitting on the file due to which there was massive delay.” She argued that Hephsiba often misinformed the council on many important issues. She asserted that the council wanted Nirmithi Kendra to carry out the works and “coordination of DC is important.”

MLC Ivan Demands enquiry
MLC Ivan D’souza reacting to the interim report of the former Commissioner said there were “some interests” involved in stalling the work. He informed “Some say MLA  Mangalore South, J R Lobo and DC Ibrahim are responsible for the pending of renovation works.” Moreover he added there is a huge mess in Town Hall renovation project and “in fact an enquiry must be conducted to bring out the truth. For the massive delay someone needs to be accountable.”

“I was never involved”-Lobo
Commenting on the report, MLA JR Lobo initially rebutted Ivan saying he was never involved in Town Hall renovation process. “It was the decision of the council to handover works to Nirmithi Kendra and due to fissures between the council and the DC, works were halted.” The DC owing to the bickering did not grant permission to Nirmithi Kendra to move ahead with second phase of work. “I always advised all the stakeholders to resolve problems. I do not want to mix politics with development.”

On the Nirmithi Kendra taking up works of the second phase which it ought not to have taken up, he said, “There has been a mistake  and the problem should be resolved to complete the works.” As regards the allegation that damage was caused to public property by the Nirmithi Kendra when they removed the seats and their foundation, Lobo claimed “this was not damage, when repair works are underway it is common sense that seats should be removed.” He exclaimed that former Commissioner calling removal of seats as ‘damage’ exhibits her ‘immaturity’.

What next?
The report concluded that in order to renovate the Town Hall, a fresh detailed blue print and estimation list has to be prepared. After getting a sanction from the competent authority a tender should be called for, to execute the works. Indeed, an ‘expression of interest’ had been called for, before Hephsiba was transferred to her new post of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Vijaypura Zilla Panchayath.
However, the Mayor was hopeful of taking the matter forward. She  informed Newskarnataka.com that the DC has called a meeting on June 22nd to resolve the issue.

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