The protest staged by Corporators of opposition parties in Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) office continued for the third day on Wednesday.
Former MLA and Cuttack district BJP President Prakash Behera met the protesting Corporators and held a discussion with them. BJP alleged that the civic body authorities are indulged in corruption and irregularities for a long time.
Meanwhile, Congress workers threw their weight behind the protesting Corporators by staging a dharna in front of the CMC office from Wednesday. As per Congress leaders, they will continue the strike till an investigation is initiated into the allegation by the Corporators.
“We had raised several questions over the alleged corruption and irregularities by the civic body and sought reply over the issues which included providing wrong information under RTI Act, arbitrary allotment of pindi (vending unit) to vegetable vendors in newly-inaugurated Urban Haat, irregularities in awarding tender amounting Rs 3.32 crore to a particular agency for digital light show, fireworks and selfie zone in the upcoming Baliyatra festival among others. However, CMC authorities failed to come up with a satisfactory response and cancelled the council meeting. Our protest will continue till our demands are met,” said Congress Corporator Santosh Bhola.
“People of our respective wards are with us. They want us to stop the corruption in CMC. The way we were misbehaved and the council meeting was stopped abruptly is shameful. We want justice,” said BJP Corporator Gagan Ojha.
Meanwhile, CMC Commissioner Nikhil Pawan Kalyan said that efforts are underway to bring out the solution to the issue after initiating discussion with the protesting Corporators.