Mangalore: Suspicion is now being raised at the very purpose of the much hypedGreater Mangalore' Project, which will embrace into the MCC limits areas like Ullal Town Municipal Council, Mulky Town Panchayat and several Gram Panchayats during the course of its implementation. With this, many feel that increasing the tax collection so as to gain greater share in Centre's funding is the sole purpose of the Project.
It is an open secret that the MCC is being burdened by the ADB loan. With the existing income, the MCC is finding it difficult to repay the loans and hence increasing its income is the only option at hand for the Corporation and Greater Mangalore is an effective answer.
The Project has been given a lot of importance by Minister for Urban Development Vinay Kumar Sorake, who on his maiden meeting as the Minister spoke of Greater Mangalore project and his ambition in implementing the same.
When the proposal to include Ullal TMC in the MCC limits was spoken about, Ullal MLA U T Khader gave green signal. Moodabidri MLA Abhayachandra Jain too gave his nod to include Moodabidri in MCC limits. MLA Moideen Bava too expressed his happiness in agreeing to let his constituency too become a part of MCC.
While the Minister and the MLAs took the decision unilaterally, they did not even spare a thought to ask the people what they want.
Ullal's identity
It may be recalled here that when Mangalore City Corporation came into existence 2 decades ago, there existed thoughts of including Ullal TMC into MCC limits. But, what is to be noted here is that Ullal TMC retained its identity as a TMC because people fought against the idea of inclusion.
What will change?
The population of the MCC is 4.99 lac at present. It has 60 wards and 60 corporators. If the Greater Mangalore project is implemented then the population will shoot up to 6.82 lac and the population which will be coming to the MCC purview will have to dole out double the existing taxes.
Development slogan
It is a clichéd jargon that sacrifice is imperative for development. But, what strikes many minds is the simple question that what kind of development have the areas under the MCC have experienced over the last 20 years. When one talks of development, it is the 3.5 odd kilometers around the MCC building that seems to be developed, but the remote areas of the Corporation still remain to be haunted by various infrastructure related problems. About four kilometers from the heart of the city exists the rural atmosphere, which defies the idea of development being touted by the preachers of Greater Mangalore.
For instances Sutherpet, Bondanthila, Arkula, Neermarga, Mukka, Katipalla, Yekkur, Jeppu are some of the areas on the outskirts of the MCC which have not seen development that should have taken off over the last 20 years.
The people in the neglected areas of the MCC now question about their plight if even more places are added to the MCC.
The Minister and the MLAs are saying that if Greater Mangalore comes into existence then Rs 1000 cr funds will flow to Mangalore under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) programme. But, there is no guarantee on the areas that will be developed using the funds released under such programmes.
The ones who have closely watched the development of Mangalore over the 20 years say that even after Greater Mangalore comes into existence the definition of development will remain to be the same.
That is, improvement of infrastructure along the main road within the MCC limits!
During the BJP rule Mangalore City Corporation received Rs 100 crore, of which not even Rs 3 crore were spent for developing the outskirts of the Corporation limits.
Ultimately, the citizens are of the opinion that they have seen enough of city-centric development and hence it is now time for the administrators to look beyond the city.
There are demands from various quarters for earmarking 75 per cent of the JNNURM funds for the areas to be included to MCC, so that they get back at least some solace for paying taxes.
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