Take Home a Piece of ‘Scrap’ as ‘Souvenir’ from ‘Town Hall’?
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, 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, a 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 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 even though the Mangaluru City Corporation had tried to auction all that scrap, no scrap dealers are willing to bid in the auction. The main reason, the scrap dealers are reluctant to buy 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.
In the meantime, since no one wants to buy the scrap, Mayor of MCC, Harinath has ordered the engineers and waste managers of MCC to find a waste handler or a scrap dealer and get rid of it free of cost. And since it is offered free now, you too can pick a piece of the “scrap” and preserve it as a ‘Souvenir’ of ‘Town Hall’?