Deccan Herald

• The repair works of the roads in the City limits will be taken up after this monsoon, Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao said.

Mangalore, Aug 6: The repair works of the roads in the City limits will be taken up after this monsoon as at present the conditions are not favourable to take up the works, said Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao addressing the public grievances meeting held at Deputy Commissioner’s office on Saturday.

He said that since there are several schools and colleges situated in the City, there is huge traffic congestion when students go to school and come back home. To find a solution to this, he said that a meeting will held with the District Superintendent of Police, RTO and administrative board members of all schools and colleges.

He said that they have received several complaints that the seats allotted for the physically handicapped and women are often occupied by others. He requested the citizens to follow the rules and not to occupy those seats.

During the meeting one of the participants suggested that strict rules must be brought in to maintain that the front entrance of the bus must be used for boarding and the other entrance for exit. If not, atleast the front entrance must be used only by women and the back entrance by men.

Responding to this, Rao said that the bus operators themselves must make this rule and enforce it and directed Canara Bus Operators’ Association President Bhaskar Salian to do the needful in this regard.

District Autorikshaw Drivers’ Association convener Vishnumurthy urged the district administration to take immediate action to repair the roads and also to take steps to accommodate the growing traffic in the City.

He said that in 1997 about 87 parking spaces were identified for the autorikshaws but after that no parking space has been allotted in spite of the need to allot new space. He said that though a meeting was held with the police department, the deliberation of the meeting, to allot 350 parking spaces in the city never happened. Instead the existing ones have been taken away in the name of development.

Zilla Panchayat member Aziz Mallar said that the city buses are not being given new permit from State Bank and urged DC to take immediate action to issue new permit to these buses keeping the convenience of the commuter in mind.

Mangalore Citizens Association President Sudhamani said that the bus drivers in the name of time keeping have been indulging into rash driving. Time keeping is also becoming a reason for petty fights in the bus stops too. She urged the district administration to take note of this.

District Superintendent of Police Sathish Kumar, Regional Transport Officer H N Ramesh were present at the meeting.