Not Smart! Karavali Utsav Ground Now a Dumping Yard for MSCL Construction Waste Mud
- Not Smart! Karavali Utsav Ground Now a Dumping Yard for Mangaluru Smart City Ltd (MSCL) Construction Waste Mud & also for Parking for GarbageTrucks belonging to Antony Waste Handling Cell Ltd, the Mumbai company which collects city’s garbage
Mangaluru: Karavali Utsav Ground on Lalbagh Road, Mangaluru which got an extreme-makeover spending few lakhs during the National Games which were held at nearby Mangala Stadium on May 1-5, 2015, where many sports events were held as part of the National Games, has now become a dumping yard for Mangaluru City Smart Limited (MSCL), where it has been dumping the waste soil/mud from the various construction sites that have been undertaken by it since there was no suitable place to dump the construction soil and debris- and this has been a nuisance for the citizens who have been using part of the Karavali Utsav ground for jogging, walking and playing cricket.
Apart from the waste soil being dumped at one portion of the ground, a portion is being used by Antony Waste Handling Cell Ltd, (the firm which collects city’s garbage) to park their garbage trucks daily- and this has created a nuisance for the joggers and walkers due to the smell emulating from these trucks, even though they have been washed before parking at the ground. This is a total hazard when it comes to hygiene in regards to the people using the ground for daily exercises for their health benefits.
While Mangaluru city Corporation has been slapping fines on people dumping waste by the river bank (Kulur, Gurpur and other river banks), roadside etc., why it has turned a blind against MSCL using the ground which is being used for Karavali Utsav Exhibitions, sports etc, as their dump yard. Until now all the mud/soil/concrete pieces/rocks etc dug out for undertaking concreting and underground drainage works at various Smart City Development projects, including Hampankatta Junction, Car Street, Bunder etc has been brought by Mugrody Construction trucks and other construction firms undertaking MSCL works and dumped on a portion of Karavali Utsav ground.
Presently the Karavali Utsav ground has been divided into two by a fence and the waste soil is dumped on the spot where Karavali Utsav exhibitions used to be held, usually during the month of January, now cancelled due to the pandemic, and MSCL with permission from MCC has taken the advantage by pouring all the road construction waste/debris in this ground- which is definitely not a SMART idea being a SMART CITY DEVELOPMENT FIRM. And due to this, citizens who have been paying taxes to avail the sporting/exercises facilities provided by the City Corporation are facing the brunt of all the nuisance from the dumping of waste soil and also smell from the parked garbage collecting vehicles, BIG and Small. A few people were using the ground to learn driving or riding two-wheelers, now they have been left in the dark.
But sources reveal that the officials of the smart city by making special requests and arrangements on temporary basis permission from the sports department since it was hard to find spaces in the City to dump construction waste soil have been using Karavali Utsav Ground for the time being, and when work requires soil again, this soil will be used for the same work again. But their plans didn’t work in this regard, since a petition filed by Karnataka State Pollution Board got MSCL into BIG trouble, where the High Court sent a Court Order to Managing Director of MSCL Akshy Sridhar to appear before the HC judge, and the Commissioner did a few days ago, and agreed before the judge that all Smart City projects will be stopped for not following the rules of ‘Construction and Demolition Waste Management of 2016’.
It is also learnt that the sports department has agreed to the conditions that even though the soil is heaped which has also some waste soil from Mangala Stadium development project, and the same will be levelled at the earliest, but it seems like the waste soil has been sitting on the useful ground used by citizens for sporting activities and exercising purposes for months, even though MSCL had assured to clear it within few days. Narasimha Shenoy, a morning walker/jogger using the Karavali ground for exercise purposes speaking to Team Mangalorean said, “This is ridiculous where the City is boasting about Smart Projects, and now putting its citizens in hardship. Imagine allowing smelling garbage trucks parked near a sports field, where hundreds of people are used to playing cricket, walk or jog. Where is hygiene followed by MSCL or MCC? And using a ground to store waste soil is so dumb when we call this City a Smart City?
