Not Smart! The Newly Renamed Town Hall Premises has become a MCC Dump Yard
Mangaluru: On one hand Mangaluru City Corporation officials raid illegal street vendors, confiscate their items and their make-shift shops, thereby make the streets look clean and make way for vehicle parking, but on the other hand, all the debris collected after demolishing the illegal street vendors shops is dumped in the premises of Kudmul Ranga Rao Purabhavana, earlier known as “Town Hall-Mangaluru”, thus making it look ugly. Is this Swachh Mangaluru that we are talking. Absolutely, NOT SMART for SMART CITY-MANGALURU!
If at all the newly renovated Town Hall- Mangaluru looks pretty good inside, but outside it looks like a scrap yard. The cost of the renovation was around Rs 4.58 crore. Acoustical equipment, false ceiling, lights, stage, seats, air conditioner, generator and other amenities have been installed. Based on the artistes’ feedbacks, teak wood flooring for the stage has been installed. Sophisticated lights, various facilities in the green room for the artistes, including AC, LEDs, signboard, the garden outside the Town Hall and many other facilities have been added.
The renovated Town Hall has now a disabled-friendly with the erection of a ramp outside the Hall as well as inside, leading to the stage. Other facilities added are- two VIP rooms, two private rooms, dining room, the modern sound-light system (so there is no need of hiring outside sound and light), Air-conditioned hall, green room, comfortable modern seats, modern western/Indian toilets/ bathrooms. Going back to the history of Town Hall–it was opened on December 29, 1964-it was closed for renovation in mid-September 2014. Renovation work started on October 18, 2014, in view of its Golden Jubilee. Everything looks great with the newly renovated Town Hall- except for the ugly scene of a mountain of scrap consisting of broken chairs, rusted street lights, window panels, broken glass etc etc
All these scrap materials are from the Town Hall before the renovation was done, and also debris from the demolished petty shops during the raid by MCC, and even though the Mangaluru City Corporation had tried to auction all that scarp, no scarp dealers will willing to bid in the auction. The main reason, the scrap dealers are reluctant to but this scrap, for the fact that there are not much of recyclable steel parts, and also that to transport all that scrap will cost them a fortune. Since they won’t be making any money by hauling all that scrap, unfortunately, all that scrap is still lying in the premises of Town Hall, exposing a bad scene to everyone visiting the Town Hall.
When Team Mangalorean contacted MCC Mayor Bhaskar K, he assured that the clean up will be done very shortly- and the same assurance was given by former MCC Mayors Harinath and Kavitha Sanil, who also said that the “clean will be done shortly”. Having said that, both the Mayors are done with their tenure, and the pile of garbage still lies there- and chances are that the waste will still be there when the current MCC Mayor ends his term?.
