Task force of experts soon for Mangalore

By Our Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE, JULY 30. Mangalore city will soon get a task force comprising experts from a cross-section of society, according to Mr. S.Krishna Kumar, Principal Secretary, Department of Urban Development Department.

Addressing a press conference after holding a round of talks with officials here today, Mr. Krishna Kumar said the experiment conducted in Bangalore City of having a parallel think tank with several elected law-making bodies, had proved to be successful. The State Government wanted to replicate this in Gulburga, Mysore, Belgaum and Mangalore. While steps had been taken to constitute task forces in the other cities, Mangalore would have a task force by August end.

Outlining the importance of the task force in a city governed by civic bodies, Mr. Kumar said the task force would hold meetings regularly and list the pressing needs of the cities involved. With the help of experts it would suggest short-term and long- term developmental works to be taken up to the civic bodies. If the civic bodies were convinced about the projects they would be taken up as pilot projects. The experts in the committee would prepare plans and give directions to the civic body in addition to the expertise provided by the civic body. It would only supplement the efforts of the civic body and have no powers either to question its decisions or to over-ride them, Mr. Kumar added. The task force's suggestions would create multiple options of growth and facilitate perspective planning.

He said the experiment in Bangalore had shown excellent results in many issues pertaining to civic life right from streamlining accounts of various departments, inter-departmental co-ordination and improving the service of various departments. He said many stake holder institutions had changed their attitudes after the task force has been constituted.

He said the preliminary meeting held at Mangalore had identified four major areas roads, drainage, housing and power transmission--under both the short and long-term agendas. He said the task force would be constituted before the release of the 285-crore Asian Development Bank loan, which would provide the right perspective to the works to be taken up by the Mangalore City Corporation and the Mangalore Urban Development Authority. He was sure that the experiment would be successful in Mangalore because of the high literacy rate and the level of civic consciousness.

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