When MCC Officials Sleep, ONLY Source Youth…

When MCC Officials Sleep, ONLY Source is Youth Power!

Mangaluru: This article was written with an intention to actually make people realize that it’s better to jump into the situation and help ourselves rather than wait for the irresponsible district authorities and Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) officials to take any action. When the city was deserted due to DK/Mangaluru Bandh on 19 May 2016, a huge Ashwatha Tree came crashing down near Karangalpady-Mangaluru, which resulted in damaging an MESCOM transformer and minor damages to a couple of shops in that area. But even after 48 hours since the incident, the status of the road had become hopeless. The MESCOM and the Fire brigade team did their work and left behind all the cut branches, leaving the area in a mess. But who is gonna clear this mess? Isn’t this the job of the MCC to clear all the branches and other debris?

The “dead bodies” of huge pieces of logs continued to lie helplessly on the concrete road occupying more than half of it making the road even more narrow. On 21 May 2016, I was there for about 15 minutes at the spot where all the cut pieces of the tree were scattered all over the place, and I witnessed three minor accidents because of this mess. Imagine how many more accidents might have taken place?

Vehicles which come from Jyothi side and wanted to take a turn opposite to Golds gym and travel to Jail Road were having a tough time to move forward. It used to be such a smooth flow road but now half way through drivers realize that branches are obstructing and apply sudden brakes resulting in someone ramming their vehicle from the back. Also, this stretch of road leads to a couple of maternity specialty nursing homes, where pregnant women are given a ride every now and then, and I wouldn’t even want to imagine what it could lead to in worst cases.

The huge logs pose a real huge threat if not removed immediately. Next day being a Sunday, 22 May, that means MCC officials won’t be showing up to work until Monday. Could somebody get this to the notice of the corporator D K Ashok?? It would really be appreciated if the same could be done rather than seeing innocent citizens getting hurt for no mistake of theirs. Since no action was taken, I and a bunch of my friends decided we do the cleaning ourselves. We put a status on Facebook on 21 May night with a message” Let’s clear up the spot tomorrow morning. Whoever is free please feel free to join in”.

As planned on Saturday 21 night we started off the work of the road clearance at Karangalpady market at early Sunday morning at 6 30 am sharp. One of the toughest early morning workouts this proved out to be. Heavy logs, really heavy logs were such a pain to be moved. Although branches were easier to move around, but they were in abundance. But as they say, where there is a will there is always a way. 90 mins of kick-ass workout and we were left scampering for breath at the end of it all. Bruised hands and cuts were all worth it by the end of it as we were able to achieve almost what we had planned for.

A few really heavy logs couldn’t be shifted but were pushed aside safely away from causing trouble to any commuters. The road is back to being a road and not a dump for logs of wood. We made it as safe as we could..!! Endless gratitude to the lovely people namely Vipul, Sháwn, Tressa, Maizy and Athul for making it on such a short notice and giving in all you guys had. Not a single log would have moved without you all.

And that’s how we spent our Sunday morning..!! And we are glad that we did some community service. As always, Youth Power is needed when our officials are doing nothing!

by Tauseef Ahmed