Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Apr 28: It has been a glaring absurdity at the old taluk panchayat office building. A prominent 'no parking' sign with the signature of the tahsildar stands at the entrance of this building. But people who park their vehicles at this building seem to be either not bothered to read this sign or have chosen to plainly ignore it.

For enabling the concerned to take up construction of mini Vidhan Soudha in the town, food and election departments have been shifted to the old taluk panchayat building. This building already houses social forestry department, Panemangalore Nadakacheri, Nemmadi Kendra, social welfare department, Press Club of Working Journalists Union, and Navachetana Seva Trust office. As such, this building experiences rush of people and vehicles every day. To regulate this rush, the tahsildar has put up 'no parking' board here.

In B C Road, no specific stretch of land has been earmarked as parking lot or zone. As such, the general rule that the people follow here is that parking zone gets created instantly at any spot where they choose to park their vehicles.

As a result, people working in Mangaluru, and also others working in different corners of B C Road have cultivated the habit of parking their two-wheelers inside the compound of this building. Because of rush of people here due to the addition of offices, a board announcing that parking of vehicles has been prohibited, duly signed by the tahsildar, has been displayed here. But two-wheeler riders have not at all heeded to this notice board. They continue to sneak into the compound by the side of the board, before parking their vehicles and walking away to their destinations.

The speed at which these two-wheelers enter the compound of this office is such that the general public inside the compound are in constant fear of being knocked down by them.

The tahsildar therefore, has to take added interest to address this problem, and make sure that entry of two-wheelers inside these premises is compulsorily forbidden.