390 Ahsraya houses built in Ullal in 2002 may soon give way to a park

June 14, 2012

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Mangalore, June 14: It may be a case of entitlement delayed and denied for beneficiaries of low income group houses in Ullal near here as their 10-year wait for houses may not ever yield a positive outcome.

A total of 390 houses constructed over a nine-acre plot in 2002 under the Ashraya Scheme at Ombathukere in Ullal didn't see any occupation due to a decade-old court case over sanitary facilities in the area.

With hardly any takers for the project that seems to be jinxed by a cocktail of bad planning, superstition and snakes, officials in the Ullal Town Municipal Council (TMC) are now mulling over a proposal to convert the area into a lodge and a park.

“When we went to see the area, there were huge snakes. I shudder to think what will happen if people actually move into the colony,” said Kumari Bhavani, vice-president of the council. Moreover, she added that the area, which houses nine “sacred” lakes and the Rajarajeshwari temple, was also surrounded by local superstition which deterred many, including the landless, from applying for houses here.

“Instead, we thought we could build a lodge to house pilgrims of the temple, who come from across the State. Tourists would not have to deal with snakes on a daily basis, and the area that locals considered haunted can be turned into a park,” Ms. Bhavani said.

In the 10 years, through seasons of monsoon and summer, the walls have crumbled, roofs have caved in, and the mud floors are overrun by shrubs.

There are no sanitary lines, no doors, windows, power lines or roads, making the houses “unliveable”.

Even though, the court-ordered project of setting up an underground drainage network in the area, which also provides sanitary facilities to the houses, saw some progress recently, the fate of the project hangs in the balance.

Sheena Naik, Chief Officer of Ullal TMC, said the issue of what to do with the houses would be taken up only after completion of the Rs. 65.71-crore drainage project. “After the drainage work is completed, we will review details of the project. If we decide to continue, we may have to ask for additional funds and update the beneficiary list, which is 10 years old,” he said. Updating involved crosschecking whether beneficiaries were still in Ullal and were still living below poverty line, Mr. Naik added.

However, the authorities will face the problem of retrieving the list. With no official from 2002 still with the TMC, its president Basil D'Souza stated that the list was with the zilla panchayat, while panchayat officials claim to have nothing to do with the project. Officials at the Deputy Commissioner's office remained non-committal on the whereabouts of the decade-old list.

Stuck in the bureaucratic wrangle were the beneficiaries, most of whom, had given up, said Ms. Bhavani.

Sixty-year-old U.K. Hussain is an example of this. Having applied for a house a decade ago, the endless wait forced him out of Ullal and into Kumbala in Kasargod district in Kerala where he lives in a rented house.

“He has given up on the house, and moved out five years ago. Having had his leg amputated, he could not find work. Eventually, he had to move out as he could not afford the rent at Ullal,” said his brother U.K. Abdulla, who still represents his case here.

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News Network
March 19,2024

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Mangaluru: The Mangalore International Airport (MIA) will connect to a new domestic destination with the introduction of a non-stop flight to Tiruchirappalli International Airport in Tamil Nadu. 

The non-stop service, once-a-week, will operate on Wednesday (from TIA) and Thursday (from MIA), starting April 3. Air India Express will operate the flight.

The flight is expected to help those taking up a pilgrimage to Vailankani shrine.

Sources from the AIE said that the airline carrier decided to fly non-stop between the two southern Indian cities as a flight to Jeddah, which will start from April 3, arrives from Tiruchirappalli International Airport. 

“It is a ferry or positional flight from TIA to MIA. Instead of flying empty, the management has decided to run it as a commercial flight. This will help both passengers and the airline. The airline will deploy Boeing 737-800 aircraft with a 186-seater all-economy configuration on this route. 

The same flight, after landing in MIA, will further fly to Jeddah,” a source said. 

The flight IX 1498 will depart every Thursday at 5am from MIA to TIA. The TIA-MIA flight IX 1499 departs at 12.50pm. It is a one-hour nonstop flight. The same flights will also operate nonstop between Jeddah and MIA. 

The non-stop flight IX 499 will depart MIA at 2.50pm and reach King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah at 6.25pm. The IX498, will depart from Jeddah at 7.25pm and reach MIA early at 3.40am.

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News Network
March 16,2024

Mangaluru: In the wake of complaints regarding middlemen menace, sleuths of Lokayukta on Friday, March 15, conducted a raid at the Mangaluru Urban Development Authority. 

The Lokayukta team found unaccounted money and several files, which were not disposed of for a long period.

Lokayukta SP CA Simon said that the Lokayukta has received complaints that middlemen have been interfering in the MUDA office, and files pertaining to the public are not being cleared on time.

A raid that commenced in the evening on March 13, lasted for 18 hours. During the raid, Lokayukta officials found cash in a bag in MUDA office, and also with officials and others. MUDA officials could not inform the source of money found in their office, the SP said.

Further, he said that many people gathered at the MUDA office during the Lokayukta raid, and have raised complaints about the harassment at the urban development authority. “We have gathered evidence for MUDA officials carrying out file disposal processes through brokers on phone calls. The investigation on the MUDA network will be continued,” he said.

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News Network
March 27,2024

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At least seven people have been killed when Israeli warplanes bombed an emergency center in southern Lebanon near the border with the 1948 Israeli-occupied territories with air-to-surface missiles, according to Lebanese security sources.

Two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity said early on Wednesday that the strike targeted the Islamic Group’s emergency and relief center in Lebanon’s southern village of Habbariyeh.

Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanese group closely linked to the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, said in a statement that “a number” of people had been killed, and called the strike a “heinous crime.”

An official from the group said “seven rescuers” were killed in the aerial assault.

Another Jamaa Islamiya official, also requesting anonymity, said a dozen medical staff were in the emergency center at the time of the strike, adding that bodies were being pulled from the rubble.

Lebanese lawmaker Hassan Mrad said “the Israeli aggression on Habbariyeh adds to the long list of Israeli crimes.”

Israel has been launching air strikes against Lebanon since the beginning of its onslaught against the Gaza Strip in early October.

An Israeli strike knocked down part of a building in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh on February 14, killing seven members of the same family, including a child, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said. A boy initially reported missing was found alive under the rubble.

In a separate Israeli attack, a woman and her two children were killed in the village of as-Sawana in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli regime launched its devastating hostilities in the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the territory’s Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.

Israel's raids have resulted in retaliatory strikes from Hezbollah in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

The movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory operations as long as the Tel Aviv regime continues its onslaught on Gaza.

The Israeli campaign in Gaza has killed at least 32,414 people, most of them women and children. Another 74,787 individuals have also been wounded.

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