Mangaluru: Even a small issue of naming a 900 metre road, has gained religious and political colour in Mangaluru. The road from Hampankatta to Dr BR Ambedkar (Jyothi) Circle is known as Light House Hill road as it houses an old Light House. Atop this hill are historically important buildings like an Idgah, St Aloysius College and also the founders branch of Vijaya Bank. This road has now triggered a controversy.
A few years ago, Vijaya Bank Employees and Officers Union had demanded that Mangaluru City Corporation name any one road in the city after Sunder Ram Shetty.
The Union decided to name the road on July 2 but St Aloysius College authorities and students objected claiming that the road was known as St Aloysius College Road and wanted to continue the same name.
The issue took a political turn with the intervention of Congress MLC Ivan D'Souza and MLA J.R. Lobo after which the state government temporarily postponed the renaming of the road.
However, this annoyed the Vijaya Bank Employees and Officers’ Union who got the support of Bunts’ Association leaders. BJP leaders too supported them and the entire issue took a political colour.
“It has become common in Dakshina Kannada for any issue to gain a political slant. If authorities of St Aloysius College approached Lobo and Ivan, the leaders of Vijaya Bank employees association got the support of the Bunt community and BJP,” activist M.G. Hegde told DC. “Instead of taking the issue to political leaders, both sides should come together to solve this problem,” he added.
St Aloysius College dean Prof Narahari, however, asserted that the college has not given communal colour to this issue. “The only reason we took this to the MLA and MLC was because they are our representatives and not for any other reason. However, the other side might have given this issue a community twist,” he said.
A meeting has been convened by district incharge minister Ramanath Rai to find a solution to the problem. One of the solution could be renaming the road till St Aloysius as St Aloysius College road and the subsequent portion (till Founder Branch of Vijaya Bank) as Mulky Sunder Ram Shetty Road. “We want the government order on naming the road after Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty to be followed. This is not an issue restricted to the Bunt community. People of all communities were helped by Sunder Ram Shetty,” Bunt Alias Nadavar Matru Sangha president Maladi Ajith Kumar Rai said during the commemoration day celebration of Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty on Saturday. MP Nalin Kumar Kateel who ttended the event declared his support for naming the road after Sunder Ram Shetty.
Meanwhile Jilla Muslim Saghatanegala Okkuta president K Ashraf has demanded that the road be named the road as Idgah Maidan Road as there is an Idgah here started in 1847.
