Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SB)
Mangaluru, Apr 7: In yet another assertion of their stand against the controversial Red Building lane road widening project in Kankanady-Valencia ward, the residents on Friday April 7 sent back the officials who had come to survey the area for the project.
As per the residents and a member of the action committee Maxim, the staff from Ashok Achar Land Survey, Shakthinagar arrived at the area to survey the land for the road-widening. When the residents questioned them, the officials informed them that the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) had sent them to conduct the survey.
The residents then asked the officials to produce a copy of the MCC order or letter directing the survey, but the officials failed to do so. The residents who grew angry at this and stopped the survey work, and sent back the officials.
The issue first arose when some residents of the ward had given a petition to provide drainage facility at Red Building Lane in 2014. It was conveyed to them that the proposal was approved in a council meeting and standing committee meeting in 2016. But later when a resident of the locality applied for a licence for a new house, he was told that as the road would be widened there to 9 meters, his licence cannot be sanctioned as per plan.
Some residents sought information on the road widening proposal through Right To Information (RTI) Act on 10 October 2016. They received a reply on 29 November 2016, which said that the residents themselves had demanded for road widening in 2014 through a petition.
Upon verification, they learned that the petition submitted for the drainage was ‘doctored’ and the same was turned into a petition demanding road widening. The residents have blamed that the corporator of the ward is involved in the fraud.
A protest took place on March 20 and the mayor visited the place on March 21 and accepted the fact that more than 95 % of the houses in the locality would be affected if the road is widened. She had assured the residents to look into this matter.
Later the residents got information that the MCC was going to approve the project in its council meeting and based on this information residents conducted a protest on March 30 at MCC premises.