B A Samvartha/The Hindu
Mangalore, May 15: The shopkeepers on K.S. Rao Road have criticised the Mangalore City Corporation authorities for concreting the road in an unscientific manner.
A spell of rain here recently left the sweets stall of Chandrakanth Narvekar on K.S. Rao Road waterlogged. “Lack of drains has resulted in water entering the shops on this road. I have constructed a bund in front of my shop,” he said.
The shopkeepers fear that absence of drains would cause flooding of shops during monsoon, which is just a few weeks away. They have written about the inconvenience being caused to the public to the corporation authorities, according to Mr. Narvekar.
Ramesh Mallya of Sairam Air Cool Hair Dressers told The Hindu that once he had been told by the authorities that the construction of drain could be taken up if the shopkeepers were prepared to sacrifice a little space in front of their shops. Believing that, he said, he had removed the name board he had fixed in front of his shop. “But no work has started yet. Now, I have been keeping the board in front of the shop and removing it from there while closing it, daily,” he added.
Sudheer Pai, a partner of Maroor’s Machine Tools Company, told The Hindu that he had received a letter from the corporation requesting him to give away some space in front of his shop for the construction of footpath.
“I have to sacrifice the space for it is in the larger interest of the people. But why were the shopkeepers not consulted by the authorities before taking up the concreting work?” he asked. Stating that he was being asked to move back without delay, he said his shop was a permanent structure and could not be easily dismantled or destroyed.
G.V. Rajashekhar, executive engineer of the corporation, said that the shop owners had to cooperate with the civic body for the benefit of the people. Asked why the shop-owners were not informed about the need to give up their space, he said: “They should have understood it when the concreting work began.”
Mr. Rajashekhar told The Hindu that drain construction had been taken up with the coming monsoon in mind. The work would be completed in a fortnight from now.
The drain construction work in front of S.R. Fancy has been stopped for almost fourteen days now, according to its owner Narayana Gatti. “For this 15-ft drain, they have taken fourteen days already,” he said and added that a middle-aged man had fallen into the trench that had been dug for the construction of the drain there.
“Widening and concreting of roads are essential. We are not anti-development. But the development should be such that it causes least possible inconvenience to the people. Authorities should consult the people as well as those who are going to be affected by it,” said M. Rathnakar Nayak, a partner of M. Vamana Nayak Sales on the K.S. Rao Road.