Referring to the bad condition of interior roads at Maroli ward, Sachin Maroli, an advocate, said: “There is a huge crater on the road in front of the house of a Bharatiya Janata Party leader. Two policemen on a motorcycle lost control and were injured in an accident recently. Even the BJP leader's attempts to get the road repaired in the ward, represented by a BJP councillor, have failed.”
Mayor Praveen, who completes his term as the fourth Mayor during the present term of the corporation council by this month end, said the BJP would complete its four-year term in the council. The BJP came to power by ending the more than two-decade rule of the Congress in the council of the corporation. The council would have to go for elections after a year when its five-year term expires.
The BJP had nothing to its credit when compared to the Congress on improving the interior roads in 60 wards in its four-year administration, said G. Hanumantha Kamath, president of the Nagarika Hitarakshana Samithi, Mangalore.
Mr. Kamath said that around 70 to 75 per cent of the interior roads in the jurisdiction of the corporation remained to be asphalted now.
Mr. Maroli said that many roads in Maroli ward had not been asphalted for the last four years. There were no storm-water drains either along several roads.
Nyzil Noronha of Kulshekar, a distributor of consumer products in the city, said interior roads in Bajal, Kulshekar, Akash Bhawan were in a bad condition. Some of the roads listed out by Mr. Noronha include Jeppu-Bappal first Crosss, Kaprigudda Road, roads in Pragati Nagar in Attavar, Old Port Road, and some roads surrounding the central market.
Mr. Noronha, who manages a non-government organisation named Chaitanya Foundation, said four years would have been enough for any party to asphalt the interior roads.
“When we are paying tax, why focus only on developing major roads in the city?Why ignore the interior roads?” he said.
Aloysius Tony Feroz, a resident of Maroli, said: “Not just the interior roads in many wards but some interior roads in the heart of the city, for example Bhavanthi Street, are in a bad condition.”
Mr. Kamath said that many interior roads in Mullakadu, Alape, Malemar, and Kodical were in a bad shape. The civic body had filled potholes in some roads leaving them without asphalting.
Leader of the Opposition in the city corporation council Lancelot Pinto said there was discrimination in the allocation of funds sanctioned under the State Finance Commission (SFC) for improving roads.
The wards represented by the Opposition councillors had been ignored. He wanted to know why the interior roads only in Surathkal and Panjimogaru areas were being developed.
Commissioner of the corporation Hareesh Kumar K. said that the corporation would asphalt around 70 roads in different wards. Bids had been invited for the works.
He said that in the second instalment of Rs. 100 crore sanctioned to the corporation, around 35 per cent of the funds would be used for laying pavements and constructing drains on the newly laid concrete roads.
