M’luru residents resort to memes to poke fun at lack of coordination between depts

Mangaluru: Ambitious development programmes undertaken in Mangaluru appear to be serving little purpose any other than those best known only to the competent authorities, but commuters, upset with the state of affairs, are looking for ever more creative ways to criticise the officials for the bureaucratic mess. The newly-constructed pavement at PVS Circle is one such example. A huge electric pole at the centre of the pavement has rendered the footpath useless. Taking a swipe at the authorities for their evident lack of planning, activist MG Hegde tweeted, “A big salute to engineers who planned this.”
A new zebra crossing at Hampankatta Circle has suffered the same fate, with railings barring entry to the pavement on one side. However, after residents expressed their ire on the internet, flooding social media sites with memes accompanied by photographs of the zebra crossing, the authorities responded by removing the railings on Monday.
On the other hand, lack of coordination between government agencies is resulting in work being undertaken at sites by other departments close on the heels of another completing work on another. Several concrete roads laid in the city are now being dug up for the laying of either underground drainage (UGD) or compressed natural gas pipes.
Energy minister V Sunil Kumar, also the Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minister, had insisted on cooperation between officials of all agencies. He had directed the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation, GAIL Gas Ltd, Mangaluru Smart City Ltd (MSCL), and the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC), to meet regularly and confer with each other to avoid exactly such situations.
Mangaluru mayor Premanand Shetty, also the director of MSCL, told TOI that meetings were being convened with officials of all agencies to solve such problems. “We have been convening meetings involving respective agencies based on the type of work to be undertaken. We make it a point to ensure that representatives of the finance corporation, and Gail authorities. We have asked them to initiate work on projects only after submitting all the information to the MCC,” Shetty said.