New Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) Commissioner’s (Channabasappa) Maiden Action! Drive Against FOOTPATH ENCROACHERS in the vicinity of Bibi Alabi Road, Bunder, around Lady Goschen Hospital among other spots by MCC officials
- The new MCC Commissioner Channabasappa had said, “It is our collective endeavour to excel in all areas of the activities in the capacity of City managers to enable this historic city, heights of civic administration and reforms. It gives me pride in serving Mangaluru City as the Commissioner of MCC. Citizens’ cooperation is solicited in making Mangaluru City SWACHH-MANGALURU, conserving water and free from ENCROACHMENTS, CONSTRUCTION WASTE and other NUISANCE’
Mangaluru: As any sensible and educated citizen of Mangaluru, nine out of ten will say that the construction of a WIDER FOOTPATH is a DUMB and UNSCIENTIFIC idea, one could think. However, if these wider footpaths did serve the real purpose to the real commuters/pedestrians, then it would be wrong on my part to draft this report. But if you look at all the new wider footpaths and the new bus shelters constructed as part of Smart City Development Projects by MSCL, they don’t serve a damn thing to the much-needed use of commuters, rather than benefiting the street vendors, other legal shop owners, hawkers, homeless, stray dogs- and in many places for illegal parking.
So, what is the use of constructing wider footpaths and bus shelters if they are not used by real commuters? We are already seeing illegal parking of vehicles and encroachment along footpaths by shopkeepers and street vendors that have choked the City, thereby causing huge inconveniences to the public. Many citizens are questioning what is the use of spending lakhs/crores on these senseless Wide Footpaths when most of it is used for parking by four-wheelers and two-wheeler owners, street vendors, stray dogs, homeless/beggars etc.
Following the transfer of Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner Akshay Sridhar on Thursday, 2 February 2023 following an order issued by the state government, and where is post was filed by Additional Deputy Commissioner of Tumkur District Channabasappa K taking charge as the new Commissioner of Mangaluru City Corporation. Sridhar, a 2017-batch IAS officer, was appointed commissioner of the Corporation in 2020, replacing Ajith Kumar Hegde.
During the farewell programme for Akshay Sridhar, the in-coming MCC Commissioner Channabasappa addressing the audience said, “It is our collective endeavour to excel in all areas of the activities in the capacity of City managers to enable this historic city, heights of civic administration and reforms. It gives me pride in serving Mangaluru City as the Commissioner of MCC. Citizens’ cooperation is solicited in making Mangaluru City SWACHH-MANGALURU, conserving water and free from ENCROACHMENTS, CONSTRUCTION WASTE and other NUISANCE’.
Having said of encroachment, MCC Commissioner Channabasappa within two days of assuming his office, directed the MCC officials from the revenue department to have a drive of FOOTPATH ENCROACHMENT by street vendors, legal and illegal shop owners etc- Good job by our new commissioner. Revenue Officer Vijaya Kumar joined by Revenue Inspectors Dinesh, Akshath and Raju, and Assistant Revenue Officer Jennukalu, among others, stormed the vicinity of Bibi Alabi Road, Lady Goschen Hospital, Bunder area among others and cleared all the goods kept on the footpath by vendors/shop owners and made the Footpath free of encroachment.
What was the need to widen an existing footpath, which has now created traffic chaos? If you look at the present situation in Mangaluru, where MSCL has taken up a bunch of projects at the same time, has put the motorists and commuters in hardship- and the road closure and diversions are nothing but total confusion. And then it will be hard for the people to cope with such decisions spanning months in this situation. No doubt this is yet another unscientific and Unplanned project the ONE Mangaluru Smart City Architect/Engineer, who is known for planning LARGE Circles in this congested city, now coming up with WIDER FOOTPATHS, instead of WIDENING the ROADS, which are need of the hour rather than the footpaths, since only a few people use the footpaths- and now already a bunch of these widened footpaths have been encroached by street vendors, among others
Just because our city’s engineers went abroad to learn about the infrastructure and city’s development in countries like the USA, UK, Singapore and many others, you simply can’t implement foreign infrastructure here in Kudla, where we have a huge population, heavy traffic on congested roads, and added to that most of the good space is taken over by hawkers/street vendors and beggars. It’s very rosy to look at Copenhagen-Amsterdam and romanticize it- but their socio-economic-cultural-governance is very different and rather impossible to replicate. Do we need to design roads according to CONTEXT and not COPENHAGEN or CHICAGO?
They alleged that roadside vendors and shopkeepers have occupied footpaths thereby leaving no space for pedestrians who are forced to walk on the streets. “On one side shopkeepers and street vendors have occupied the footpaths and on the other hand, people park their vehicles illegally on the roadside. The height is that first street vendors used to occupy the footpaths to display their goods, now people have been parking two-wheelers on these footpaths, Few of the apartment residents nearby have many times apprised the MCC and other concerned authorities but they have failed to act on the ground.
When Team Mangalorean contacted the concerned persons in MSCL and MCC they said that they would look into it and action will be taken against the street vendors occupying the footpaths and people parking their vehicles illegally.- but as of now, no action has been taken, other than just promises. If MSCL or MCC is constructing these footpaths, it is their responsibility to see that no illegal street vendors occupy the footpaths, and also see that no vehicles are parked. First of all Smart City Mangaluru needs WIDER Roads & Not WIDER Footpaths! Period. Eventually, when all these wide footpaths are done, they would get encroached upon by hawkers/squatters- Has the design tried to include them? Do you have designated hawker zones?- I want to ask the Smart Engineers behind the senseless Wide Footpaths.
Another thing is that, even after a few wider footpaths are ready, people who are used to walking, are never seen using the footpath facilities anyhow. They feel that it is safer walking on the streets than on the footpaths encroached by hawkers, stray dogs, mobile canteens, and the homeless, and many of these footpaths are left with open pits, where one could fall into and get injured. This is not smart by the smart people behind it? Please wake up Smart City Officials to plan BIGGER circles and WIDER footpaths– this is India and Mangaluru. Be realistic and pragmatic in solving problems, not building castles in the air.
