Kaikamba-Cargogate road turns tanker park

By CT reporter
MANGALORE : "The proposed implementation of the Special Economic Zone in Mangalore, would open the doors of heaven for the city which will witness alround progress"-so are the juicy words of our political leaders almost at any occasion or opportunity that they get to speak. But, in this land of intellectuals a village is being slowly transformed into a slum, right under the nose of the ONGC.
The Cargogate-Kaikamba road that was concretised with a grant of Rs 16 lakh from the Mangalore Urban Development Authority, has now been converted into a garage for the tankers, in Bala.
Though there are full-fledged yards in MRPL for these tankers, the absence of lavatory facilities there, have forced these tanker people to park their vehicles on roadsides itself.
The net result -not only the movement of other vehicles on this road is obstructed, but it has also created unhygienic conditions.
As if to top the problem, of late there has been unabated theft of diesel, petrol and tar in Bala area and it may be worth mentioning here that the MRPL had some time back complained of theft of hundreds of barrels of tar worth crores of rupees. The parking of these tankers in this area has virtually created a Tamil world right from Ganeshpura Kaikamba upto Kaana with the men almost seen in a drunkem state, picking up quarrels and misbehaving with passersby and also indulging in flesh trade and thefts.
Even the incidence of Malaria is on the rise in Bala and given the circumstances, it may be no surprise if Dengue and Chikungunya too make their appearance. The several appeal made by the general public and also various other organisations to end this tanker menace has so far fallen on deaf ears.
In fact, the local legislator Krishna Palemar had taken part in the inaugural of this road and now the legislator too has not paid any heed to the problem and locals are now forced to come to the conclusion that even for the legislator his personal interest only mattered and not public interest.