A group of youth have done what the municipal administration could not do for long. On Sunday, they cleared a choked drain from which sewage had spilled over to the main road.
The Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation had not addressed the issue even after repeated appeals. Calls made to the municipal corporation’s control room did not yield results either.
After waiting for over a fortnight, a group of youth from Ramalingeshwar Nagar took the work upon themselves under the aegis of the Yuva Utsahigala Seva Sangha. And, help came from unexpected quarters.
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On Sunday morning, Sharif Halasangi, Shashikumar Sullad, Santosh Mane, Ravi Hubballi, Praveenkumar Harkuni, Shivashankar Margannavar, Prakash Hullikeri, Basavaraj Tumbarmatti, Manjunath Chalwadi, Mehboobsab Haravi, Abdul Rehman Abbigeri, Shivakumar Bagalkoti, Vinod Morkar, Vinayak Pawar and Irene M. reached the spot armed with safety gears and tools, along with a hired earthmover.
Even before the traffic police personnel came to streamline the vehicular movement, these youngsters began their work on the choked culvert on Gokul Road on the way to Heggeri. They found that the pipeline used to act as culvert was filled to the brim with mud. The group cleared the block as passersby watched curiously.
The earthmover was used again to put back the pipeline in place and level the road. The ‘operation’ took close to two hours.
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It was not the first time that the seva sangha has taken up the job of doing what the corporation has to do.
They have earlier cleaned the skywalk near the bus station and the railway station. As they got some local help, they were able to lay concrete to a pothole-filled road near Akshay Park.
“It all started eight months ago. We have engineers, transport operators and newspaper hawkers in the group. We identify an issue, first pursue it with municipal authorities and then look for help and take steps to solve it,” Mr. Mane, treasurer of the sangha, said.
We identify an issue, first pursue it with the municipal authorities and then look for help and take steps to solve it
The Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation did not address the issue even after repeated appeals, say office-bearers of Yuva Utsahigala Seva Sangha