Political twists to protests against bad roads

MANGALORE : The recent protests staged by political parties against the utterly miserable condition of the roads of the city and its outskirts is taking politcial twists with the passing of each day with the leaders resorting to mud-slinging instead of diverting attention to the pressing problem of bad roads.
The first of the series of protests against the bad roads from Kottar Chowki to Mulki, was led by the district Congress vice president Ivan D’Souza. A padayatra was taken out from Kottara Chowki to Mulki, participated by some politicalleaders and leaders of bus operators’ associations.Though buses on the route were off the road that particular day and the bundh was almost successful, it is widely believed that Ivan failed to take political advantage of the same, the main reason being that the number of Ivan’s opponents was increasing within his party with the passing of each day.
Ivan who until recently was in JD(S) and its various organisations, joined the Congress all of a sudden and even became its district vice president. But, the fact remains that there are several veteran leaders in the Congress who are trying to pull his legs to the maximm.
As if to counter the Ivan sponsored protest, the BJP called for a Highway bundh within a few days. But, the tragedy was that this bundh call evoked very poor response with complaints coming in that the BJP agitators resorted to a forceful bundh. Still, the BJP men who took part chose to blame the former Suratkal legislator Vijay Kumar Shetty and the union government for the bad state of the highway.
Amidst these even the protest against the sorry state of the Padil-Bajal road has led to protests that took political twists. The road form Padil-Bajal, Veeranagar, Faisalnagar,Jalligudde and Pakkaladka are in a bad state since the past two years with most of the areas coming under Suratkal assembly cosntituency.
When Vijaykumar Shetty of the Congress was the Suratkal legislator, the BJP men led by Kumble Sunder Rao had staged protest and had vowed to repair the road if Kumble was elected MLA. Kumble was later on elected but nothing happened, and the Congress followed the BJP footsteps in protesting against the bad roads.
Later, again Shetty became the MLA and it was the same old story. During Shetty’s tenure, J Krishna Palemar had visited the area and had promised to repair the road using his own funds, if elected MLA. But, even after years of becoming an MLA there has been no change in the condition of the road.
Recently, the locals decided to protest and staged an agitation that was even backed by the Sri Rama Sene, and restricted movement of buses on the route. The Congress and the BJP remained silent spectators to this protest.
Even the residents of Malemar area near Derebail Konchady staged a protest for the same reason recently. The roads of this residential area are in a very bad state making it difficlt for the two route no 60 buses operating on the route and the buses had even refrained from plying on this road after the recent heavy downpour. The residents staged a protest demanding early repair of the road and also to reintroduce bus service on the route.
On the other hand, residents of Bikarnakatta in the outskirts of the city also recently staged a rasta roko against the unmotoable condition of the local roads.
Many of the roads in the city are no different from the highways as far as their condition siconcenred. While the Centre is blamed for the bad highways, the Mangalore city corporation is solely responsible for the poor condition of the city roads. The city mayor Ashraf who has glued to power even after his tenure has expired, courtesy the row over mayoral elections, has failed to discharge his duties effectively, as far as the roads are concerned.
Record books say the Mangalore city corporation releases nearly Rs one crore every year for repair of roads in various of its wards. But, God knows where the funds go. One main reason for the miserable roads of the city is the indiscriminate digging and laying of trenches by the BSNL as well as private telecom companies for laying of cables.
As if this is not suffice, roads are dug for water pipe laying works and so on. The dug up portion is filled with mud and no step taken to bitumenise that portion. Even the contractor-corporator nexus has contributed to the bad roads.
Tbough rules make it mandatory for telecom companies to bring the roads back to their original position no sooner the works are over, however do not discharge their duties, resulting in bad roads.
Almost every road has been repaired in records and every road sees bitumen at least once in a year. But, where does that go ? It gets washed away in the initial rain itself, making everything crystal clear needing no further explanation.
It is now left to be seen if at all these protests would have any bearing on our authorities.