Much ado about an office building

H.S. Narasimha Kumar

Two important State agencies the Police Department and the Mysore City Corporation appear to be at loggerheads over the construction of a new office building for the Mysuru City Police Commissioner.

Months after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah laid the foundation stone for the mammoth building to be constructed at a cost of Rs. 14 crore on the Police Band Bungalow premises, city councillors objected to it saying it was being constructed without obtaining prior permission from the MCC.

Turning their ire towards MCC Commissioner C.G. Betsurmath for remaining a mute spectator to the ongoing illegal construction, the councillors demanded that a notice be issued to the Police Commissioner to stop the work.

But, Police Commissioner M.A. Saleem was in no mood to oblige the naysayers. There is no need for the Police Department to obtain a building licence from the MCC, he said, citing exemption for construction of police buildings under the Karnataka Municipal Act.

Why was the MCC silent when the Police Department constructed more than 20 buildings in the city in the last few years, he asked.

A new building was also constructed on the City Police Commissioners office premises in Bengaluru. Sources in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike said the civic bodys permission was not required for the building as it was constructed by the Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation Ltd.

Kannada activist and former MLA Vatal Nagaraj will win hands down if there is ever an award for the most eyeball-grabbing protest. His modes of protest range from threatening to urinate in public while demanding construction of toilets to riding a chariot around Bengaluru on Valentines Day in solidarity with young couples targeted by Right-wing activists.

The ever-in-the-news leader has a penchant for using animals in his protests.

Donkeys, buffaloes and cows have routinely walked with him on his marches.

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Much ado about an office building