MONTH-IN-PERSPECTIVE- April 2021

NEW DELHI: It is very unusual and rare that those who peddle news, the TV anchor or journalist himself becoming an eye of the storm and becoming the news himself. Long standing anchor with television Rajdeep Sardesai, was in the thick of happening some weeks ago, interestingly for some eminently wrong reasons. As a result, he was declared out of action from his employer INDIA TODAY. He was accused of fake news. Reporting from Delhi, on the Tractor Parade on 26th January 2021, where he reported and repeated that a Tractor operator was shot by the Delhi police and was killed, which in reality it wasn’t. The tractor being driven by Navneet Singh overturned while trying to break the police barricades. Postmortem reportedly revealed that the tractor operator died due to “a traumatic injury above the left side of his skull from where his brain started oozing out”. The video released by the Delhi police also revealed “Navneet Singh speeding and running over barricades with his tractor resulted in the tractor overturning”. Rajdeep Sardesai was clearly fishing in the troubled water. What compounded his condemnable tweet was his reiteration to an India Today reporter that “the deceased Navneet Singh, would become a symbol for the agitating farmers and they would not leave till they got “Justice for Navneet”. That Sardesai later deleted the tweet and commended police for restraint has not reduced the gravity of his professional misconduct. No wonder his employer INDIA TODAY, despite Sardesai being the consulting editor, took him off air for 2 weeks and cut his month’s salary. The salary cut was rather harsh, knowing his position in the media house. But his employer probably went by the rule book. ‘We brook No Nonsense’. It was unprecedented, but setting an example all the same. The mighty ivory tower came crashing down. For once the invincibility of journalistic facade of well entrenched media men and women was shaken. And mind you nobody in the media –the writers & commentators- spoke about the incident and the sharp rap on the knuckle by the employer. And he is one of their very own. Of course, as expected some of the BJP functionaries went to the market with their side of the story, that Rajdeep Sardesai is a ‘repeat offender’ and that ‘he lied’ and was inciting attack on Delhi police etc. However, reportedly, this was not the first time that the ‘King Can Do No Wrong’ was caught without his garments on. But surprisingly, where are the jokers in the social media who went to bed with Rajdeep Sardesai! The news that he was apparently ‘defrocked’ to use the monastic language of the church, to be out of public view from his parents INDIA TODAY, for 15 days, is the worst slap anyone of his clan received from his employer past or present. Here it is pertinent to recollect what he did in his craze for TRP years ago! He committed a serious faux pass! Sometime in 2012, CNN/IBN, where Rajdeep was the Editor-in-Chief made a list of 100 greatest Indians after Mahatma Gandhi. This list of 100 is not available at the moment, but in his wisdom Sardesai included names of film actor Rajnikanth, Naga separatist Anang Phizo, Naxalite Charu Majumdar, politician Kanshi Ram, Actor/Singer Kishore Kumar, Police woman Kiran Bedi among others. Later he selected a panel of 26 ‘eminent, intellectual/ scholars’ jury to prune the list to 50. The panel had 7 media men, 5 authors & writers 3 sports persons & sports writers and 2 from Arts & Cinema, 1 bureaucrat, 1 Lawyer politician. Lawyer politician was Arun Jaitley. Ramachandra Guha, the historian, was also a member of the panel. Panel pruned the list to 50, but included another 5 names to the 45 taken from the 100, and 5 were, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Shivram Karanth, C. Rajagopalachari, Ramaswamy Naicker and former Prime Minister V.P Singh. Then the great Indian public was asked to grade their preferences from the 10 pruned from the 50 as the greatest Indians after Mahatma. Not only the great Indian public failed, with its poor sense of historical perspective but a lack of a fairer sense of judgment. The fickleness of the vox populi was in full flow, when they put Lata Mangeshkar at the bottom with 20 points, graduating further was Indira Gandhi with 49 votes, Jawaharlal Nehru with 57 votes, JRD Tata with 102 votes, Mother Theresa with 168 and believe it or not, Tendulkar was voted 309 to get the 5th place among the top 10 of greatest Indian. Doesn’t this represent the intellectual impoverishment of our great Indian public and of course the elite? However in their wisdom, not only this Rajdeep Sardesai, even historian Ramachandra Guha, who tom-toms disproportionately, too did not remember to include the name of Bharat Ratna, former Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri. By any stretch of imagination, Shastriji was the greatest Indian post Mahatma Gandhi. Even those female members of the ‘elite panel’, Shubha Mudgal, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Shabana Azmi and Shobha De did not blink. As transport minister of UP, as far back as 1950, Shastriji introduced for the first time, female conductors, as a measure of women’s empowerment in the UP public transport? He was clearly far ahead of his time and these women had no clue. And this eminent journalist editor Rajdeep Sardesai was completely ignorant besides historian Guha of contemporary Indian history, and they are the opinion makers of modern India of 21st century. This is our media, take it or leave it. UTTAR PRADESH: An independent journalist based in Mumbai, one Anil Singh wrote a piece some weeks ago, in a Mumbai based English news paper “Will a Ram Mandir lead to Ram Rajya?” It’s a good question and therefore do not have a 100% agreeable answer and therefore it is evident, the answer is a profoundly mixed ‘YES & NO’. Dynamics of a living society can never have a 100% solution to all questions, especially the ones like the above it is quite simply not possible. The vexed problem of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya has a history of close to 500 years. it was Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur, the Mongol, who invaded India in the early part of 16th century reliably understood to have built in 1528/29, the Babri Masjid after the demolition of an existing temple dedicated to Hindu God Lord Rama. Before the arrival of Muslim marauders who stayed back to plunder the country and ended up ruling parts of India, the country was a Hindus only country. These marauding Mongols and other Muslim denominations forcibly converted locals to Islam and established themselves as rulers. Thus, this particular issue of Ram temple in Ayodhya could not be resolved until India became a politically free country. However Hindus who lived in Ayodhya kept themselves in touch with their sacred place by visiting and performing poojas in and around the Babri Masjid. According to some affidavits filed by some Muslim residents of Ayodhya, since 1936 onwards Muslims have neither used the place as a Masjid nor offered prayers there. However it was only past 1985 when Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi removed the lock of Babri Temple complex, things have travelled fast to conclude in December 2019 by an Apex Court judgment in favour of temple construction. It was an unanimous judgment which fortunately had a Muslim gentleman as a member of the bench of 5. Thus the movement for the reconstruction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya has taken a quantum leap with both a good part of Indians and the central government of the day joining hands. Those who were in charge of reconstruction had planned to raise the money from participating public. Reportedly collection has been double the target. So money is clearly not a hindrance. So clearly the Ram Mandir construction has become a people’s movement. But this writer Anil Singh writes about forcing people to donate for the temple construction fund which those in charge deny vehemently. This Anil Singh starts the piece with a statement that the whole issue of temple at Ayodhya itself divisive. This is an attitudinal problem. When NDA II started in 2014, it was PM Modi’s clarion call “Toilet Pehle Mandir Baadmein”. Writers like Anil Singh need to understand there is a wronged psyche among the majority of Indians which needs to be soothed for the simple reason despite 80% Indians being Hindus they waited for a court verdict. With such vast majority of Indians being Hindus, and if they want to build a temple they revere, how does it hurts the secular foundation of India! Most writers, especially in English, are left oriented and therefore are a bit anti-Hindu and hence not happy with the Hindu resurgence. India is a country with all kinds of socio-economic problem with over 1300 million people. Naturally resource crunch can always be there. This Anil Singh is harping on a couple of bad incidents like babies dying due to lack of oxygen or children dying due to faulty incubators, is not only in bad taste, the analogy is pervert. True, we need to address the issues of health management in the country and that’s pretty serious. But these writers in their ‘secular prism’ do not exhort people to reduce their numbers, which will eventually help reduce the enormity of the problem, but would routinely write against any move by Hindus to address their own problems. They do not want a strong Hindu society who can help others also strengthen themselves, but should remain weak to be at the mercy of authorities. That is sad and bad. Actually there are so many references this writer makes from pages of contemporary yester-years, it exposes his intention clearly, only to draw bad blood and prove himself a secularist for those who are politically right kind of people. UTTAR PRADESH: With best of efforts by the Mahant turned politician Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, to make the state Uttam Pradesh, it has not been a success story after years of ‘inspired’ administration. Yogi Adityanath tried hard to make the state a law abiding ‘model state’ by using police to eliminate hard core rowdies and criminals. He has been successful to a great extent with the menace of the gangs. But what will he do, if the same police took the greater freedom for granted to act against anti-socials as license to act criminally against hapless law abiding citizens! The report datelined Agra, informs “NHRC notice to UP-DGP over arrest of 10 people”. National Human Rights Commission reportedly took a suo-moto notice of the wanton arrest of 10 citizens by the police in Etah district. According to report, two constables ate food at a dhaba on Agra Road which was billed as Rs.400/- But policemen gave only Rs.80/- to the disabled owner of the eatery Praveen Kumar Yadav. On demanding the balance, the policemen left the place and returned with 15 additional policemen, and took Praveen Kumar’s brother, cousin and 8 other customers to Kotwali Dehat Police Station and registered FIR against them. How in their right sense these policemen do what they did! Surely NHRC has gone into the details before issuing notice to Director General of police, UP, to report back in six weeks. In fact, NHRC should have given only 2 weeks as it is a straight forward case of police high-handedness towards vulnerable citizens who cannot fight. Not only all policemen involved should be suspended, those two policemen, who can be treated as criminals, should be dismissed. It’s commendable that NHRC has acted and acted fast on such a case, or else these 10 innocents would have rotted within the 4 walls of a police station cell. Hope Yogi Adityanath acts and acts fast to send an appropriate message to erring policemen. How can policemen who are there to protect ordinary citizens be so bad!? GUJARAT : Human social intercourse has tried to perpetuate memories of their beloved sons of the soil by creating memorials and inscribe the name of those whom they held close to their hearts. It’s an universal phenomenon from Glasgow to Gujarat. There is nothing unusual about it. But these memorials are generally, as a time honoured practice, named after those souls who live only in memory, after they have departed from the world of homo-sapiens. Thus, when the stadium in Motera, Ahmadabad was named after a living dynamo PM Narendra Modi, expectedly it did raise eyebrows from a cross section of Indians. Reportedly the original name was Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium. Hence it is not only surprising but can even be a bit blasphemous, especially when in the contemporary Indian history Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the tallest leader of Gujarat and one of the architects of free India. To replace his memory with the name of another ‘Loh Purush’, however dynamic, in the contemporary political scenario, does smack of unhealthy identity promotion. We Indians could have lived better with the old name of Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium instead of Narendra Modi Stadium. This stadium was inaugurated in 1983by the then Congress government as Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium. So Congress is justifiably furious. They dubbed it sacrilegious, an insult to the sacred memory of the great man. As we all know, these public utility structures or any of these creations in public space are named as memorials to the venerable departed souls of our land and PM Modi is still around, hale and hearty and we all Indians wish him long and healthy life in service of our mother land. Hope better sense prevails and PM Modi himself asks the authorities in Motera Ahmadabad to revert back to the name of one of the greatest Indian of all times. Having constructed the world’s tallest statue of the IRON MAN, at Kevedia near Ahmadabad it’s only fair we continue all these existing places where the inscription Sardar Patel embellishes the space it presently occupies. While Congress, as opposition party has every right to air its views-right or wrong-it appeared little funny, for Ravi Shankar Prasad, a minister in Modi government to criticize Sonia Gandhi and others in Congress for ‘not having visited Kevedia to pay respect to Sardar Patel and Congress is talking about insulting Sardar Patel’. Ravi Shankar Prasad (RSP) should remember that mere visiting the statue, created by Modi government does not increase the respect for Patel. Respect comes from feelings not by the grandness of the statue. RSP cannot say anything that displeases his boss & Prime Minister. The fact is the naming of Motera Stadium as Narendra Modi stadium is wrong, just like Khadi & Village Industries calendar in 2017 having Narendra Modi on the Charkha after replacing Mahatma Gandhi. No! PM Modi has his own standards. He is globally known, he should not lower it for the sake of some quirky name and fame, period. MAHARASHTRA:Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) is in the news, this time for some wrong reasons. Of course, it’s the Antilia, the swanky incredibly expensive home, of Mukesh Ambani the Chairman of RIL was the focus of the news. A vehicle was found in the vicinity of the mansion with explosive in it. The unmanned vehicle was traced to one Mansukh Hiren as the owner, a spare parts dealer in Thane. Strangely within days he is found dead in a Thane creek, outside Mumbai. Family suspects foul play. Autopsy report is not being discussed in the media. There’s hush-hush deliberation in the corridors of Mantralaya with police top brass in attendance. So, all is not hunky dory. Daal Mein kuch kaala hai! But then it’s been always like that with RIL! Isn’t it? Some years ago, stones were found in the petrol tank of the helicopter belonging to Anil Ambani, the poorer brother of the richest Indian, Mukesh Ambani. Fortunately it was discovered before helicopter being air borne and a possible mishap averted. It could have been Anil Ambani himself who could have been flying when helicopter was airborne. Disaster, with stones inside the petrol tank, could be imaginable. Mercifully, it was not to happen. But an attender with the helicopter was found killed on the track at Santacruz railway station, a Mumbai’s western suburb, run over by a speeding train. How was the body found at Santacruz? Was he killed before and laid on the track? Why did he die unnaturally, suspiciously and mysteriously? Was it because, he knew, how the stones landed in the fuel tank of the helicopter? Intriguing isn’t it? A last word on the incident is yet to be heard. Long ago, an attempt was made on the life of Nusli Wadia, the scion of Bombay Dyeing Empire. A director of Reliance Industries was arrested. He was on the board of RIL with Dhirubhai Ambani at the helm as Executive Chairman. Sharad Pawar was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. No more was heard of the case ever since. May be even Wadias too bought peace by not pursuing it! So there are far too many questions at the door of RIL. Truth has always been a casualty. When big money speaks, all goes limp including the law and legal apparatus. Is it the fault of the money or the never ending human avarice! Oh poor mother India! MAHARASHTRA: There was this report datelined Mumbai in the print media some weeks ago; “Bombay HC refuses to grant default bail to activist Navalakha”. Those who read news papers are aware that Gautam Navalakha, an activist journalist was arrested among others on charges of instigating riot in Bheema Koregaon besides terrorism charges. There’s an unproved accusation by activists that it was all trumped up charges and that there is no history of any crime against these activists including Navalakha. Gautam Navalakha was also attached with ECONOMIC & POLITICAL WEEKLY, a left oriented, English weekly engaged in serious writings. According to report, investigating agency NIA has failed to file its charge sheet within the stipulated 90 days and Navalakha has already spent over 90 days in detention. Naturally Gautam Navalakha approached Bombay H.C to grant him bail on the ground of default. In a democratic set up courts at all levels from magistrate to Supreme Court are there to provide justice and not just judgment. When we talk of justice there is an element of fairness in all the actions of these adjudicational entities. At the end of the day, all courts should see if what it is doing ‘day-in and day-out’, is all fair. That is how even dreaded criminals have been granted default bail when investigating agencies have failed in their responsibility of filing the charge sheets within the stipulated time. These charge sheets were not filed for varieties of reasons, including influence peddling, which is another word for corruption. Then of course the judges come on board to take the call, right or wrong, although, there would be every reason to fear that any questionable release of a criminal on questionable ground can affect the course of justice through varieties of acts of commission and omission. Yet it’s on record that in the past criminals have been granted default bails. And Bombay High Court refuses to entertain a legitimate application of an intellectual activist, who did not peddle influence and who is not a threat to the course of justice, purely on technical grounds. This is not justice, a citizen should expect from the seats of judgment. This is disappointing. MAHARASHTRA: There was this news report datelined Mumbai in a Mumbai based daily a few weeks ago “Over 100 misplaced phones recovered, returned to owners”. Ascribing to AGENCIES, based in Mumbai, the report informed about some 117 cell phones retrieved by the Maharashtra police as a result of the police action on people’s complaints during 2019-20. The police claimed the value of these phones to be Rs. 17,55,000/-. This figure works to a neat Rs. 15000/- per cell phone. If true, this is an exceptional performance by the Maharashtra/Mumbai police, as they claimed that these phones had gone missing in areas of Mumbai like MIDC-65 phones, Andheri-23 phones, 16-Powai, 13-Meghwadi. All these are industrial/commercial /residential areas of Mumbai. What is really surprising is ‘these phones were recovered from as far off places as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Delhi, parts of Maharashtra and other states’ informs the report. Reportedly, a minister of Maharashtra government Aaditya Thackeray, the son of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who had come under cloud in the Sushant Singh Rajput unnatural death case, was presiding over an event to return these phones to its ‘rightful’ owners. This is an extremely interesting news, especially because if this report & news is true, it speaks volumes of the efficiency of Mumbai/Maharashtra police which has ‘hit the bulls eye’ couple of days ago with the allegation of Rs. 100/- crores collection every month by police as demanded by the State Home Minister. And come to think of it, that for all 70+ post independent years, missing children from Maharashtra remained untraced for years on. It becomes all the more glaring when cyber police in all states have more often than not have failed to trace beneficiaries of those payments made through bank to its bank a/cs by victims of cyber crime. In fact these cyber crime cells have even failed to ask the banks’ concerned even the KYC details of those accounts which received these remittances. Routinely cyber police tell complainants that, ‘we will take your complaint but nothing will come out of it. A young college student was made to believe in Mangalooru that she will get gold and other valuables and was induced to part with some Rs. 130,000/- through a ‘customer’ of a branch of Canara Bank in Kolkata. Through the help of an ACP, a complaint was lodged with the Mangalooru police cyber cell. An FIR was filed. Copy given to the victim, who went to the bank to ask how they can help in the matter, the branch manager fired the student and said nothing would happen and how she should be careful etc. However, when a social worker accompanied the girl to the bank, and gave a letter to find out the details of KYC from the branch which received the remittance, the manager refused to take the letter, insisting it should come from the victim. The same person had earlier driven the girl out, without doing anything. If only cyber police had asked for these details from the bank it could have come and bank manager could have been forced to trace the transaction. But then this is how poor people are treated by the system. Under the circumstances to believe that Mumbai police really could recover, 117 stolen or misplaced phones, in less than a year’s time, is a huge compliment for the police. But is it really true? Or is it some kind of a gimmick with some agenda behind it? Strangely no electronic media has covered the event. KARNATAKA: “There was this news report datelined Mangalooru “Will form brainstorming panel for DK development: MP- Kateel”. Quite frankly it appeared little humorous, for whatever it was worth. Reportedly Vijay Karnataka Kannada daily had recently organized a Summit, “A Road Map for the integrated development of Dakshina Kannada”. Mangalooru / D. K Member of Parliament Nalin Kumar Kateel was speaking at this function. While exhorting the elected representatives of the district to ensure the implementation of all resolutions passed at the Summit, he declared “a brainstorming committee with experts from agriculture, business, industry, education, health, social service, religion and culture to plan and focus on the development of Dakshina Kannada will be constituted. The committee will meet once in six months, conduct an overview and make recommendations for the government”. Mr. Nalin Kumar Niranjan Shetty Kateel, also known as Nalin Kumar Kateel is an M.P since 2009, that is some 12 years ago. He is witness to the goings on for all these 12 years as Member of Parliament, in his constituency of Dakshina Kannada. His background before his election as M.P is little known to the people at large. Being in BJP and D.K being a strong bastion of BJP he managed to win and kept winning for the 3rd time. Of course, Modi wave certainly helped many elected MPs of BJP. Be that as it may, what is really surprising is how this thought of constituting an expert committee for the development of his constituency did not occur to him for all these past 12 years. This kind of initiative while being laudable should have come 12 years ago. Of course, for development initiative, it is never too late. While congratulating for this, better late than never, initiative by the MP, what is surprising is, he, as an MP of Dakshina Kannada and the newspaper Vijay Karnataka also from Mangalooru do not seem to remember that there was one Coastal Agenda Task Force under the Chairmanship of Dr. N. Vinay Hegde constituted by Government of Karnataka! This was established in the very same year Nalin Kateel was elected an MP. In fitness of things, it would be educative for the Member of Parliament to find out about the progress of this Coastal Agenda Task Force, and prepare a blue print for the proposed panel of experts which the MP is planning. At least there will be lot of saving of time and efforts and may even be an eye opener for anybody interested in the development of D.K. While we are about it, Dr. N. Vinay Hegde, who is the Chancellor of Nitte University, is also the Chairman of Lamina Group of Companies. He was the Chairman of Board of Governors of NITK, Surathkal in 2004/2005. His contribution to the growth of ‘Destination Dakshina Kannada’ in various fields is immense although not yet recognized by the central government. He is the most visible face of Mangalooru & DK in the media. There have been Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awards in the district since some years. As local MP, has Nalin Kumar Kateel, slipped in not proposing Dr. N. Vinay Hegde for a national recognition! KARNATAKA: There was this report in the print media a week ago “Set the bar high for conferring honorary doctorates: Advocate”. The report was ascribing to a senate member who also happened to be an advocate. So, in all fairness the report could have said a ‘senate member’ instead of an ‘Advocate’. Or they could have put his name Vivekananda Paniyala. But then it’s the journalists who decide how a report should be titled or highlighted, like it or not. The issue taken up by Vivekananda Paniyala (VP) is a matter of concern for the sanctity of Honoris Causa, which means ‘for the sake of the honour’ in Latin. This is a form of conferment of a doctorate to a person to recognise his contribution to the society in any given field, where his services / involvement have made a difference. However, sadly, what is happening in the academic institutions these days with respect to these honorary doctorates, it’s given to persons of dubious credentials, where money or money’s worth changes hands including political pressures. Some years ago, one early morning, I received a phone call from a senior Professor of Mangalore University, informing how a Class I PWD contractor was being conferred this honorary doctorate, which allowed him to use the prefix ‘Dr’ before his name. Of course the then senate did not have the gumption of Vivekananda Paniyala, the advocate, to question the decision. Or else it could have become a subject of public debate. Sadly this media, both print and electronic are highly selective about what needs to be written about, if not exposed, and what’s being glossed over. In strictly moral terms, it can be even termed moral turpitude, for the sheer compromise the University has allowed itself in its stated values, for some pecuniary benefit of a transient nature. And the above case was only a proverbial ‘tip of the iceberg’. There are any number of cases in all parts of the world including the hallowed Cambridge and Oxford University. So this is an ongoing organized menace which needs to be fixed. It’s an issue media should have taken up a long time ago. But sadly media men and women have their own priorities, that is how VP decided to call it ‘enough is enough’, that someone had to ‘bell the cat’. Reportedly VP has written a letter to Karnataka Governor, Vajubhai Vala, who is also the Ex-officio Chancellor of the University, expressing his concern over the questionable process of selection of individuals for this honour contrary to the ‘Statutes Governing Convocation’ for such conferment. According to VP, there were nine names for D. Litt, proposed by the University, some of whom are not fit for the honour. VP needs to be congratulated for his action of highlighting and taking up this issue, which was long overdue. Two cheers to VP. KARNATAKA: Mangalooru Smart City Ltd was established in April 2017. It’s going to be some 4 years this March end. There is no clarity in the public space as to what is the objective of this company! Beautification, development of parks and roads, creating recreation facilities tourism etc. reportedly are some of the objectives of this MSCL. However one of the major activities it was involved in since beginning is the construction of designer-bus-stops and there are far too many constructed some 20 of them, in a matter of 2 years or so. How these bus stops, some of them eye-sores with old bus stops in the neighborhood, have increased the beauty of Mangalooru is unknown. But how has it made the city smart? It’s a question begging for an answer. Somebody up there, responsible for allocating public money and those who are authorized to spend it need to answer. There have been many in social media ridiculing the functioning of this MSCL. Reportedly MSCL has received around close to Rs. 350 crores so far. It is a big money and when it was parked in a bank, the public sector bank even presented MSCL with a swanky automobile as a gift. Again misuse of public money! How the managers of this huge public money are accountable? Thus, there is a discernible disquiet about the questionable existence of this MSCL. Public always thought that this MSCL will make Mangalooru a Smart City. But no such things are happening. Be that as it may, a week ago, the print media carried a report datelined Mangalooru “MUDA to develop truck bays, terminal”. MUDA is Mangalooru Urban Development Authority created to carryout integrated planning and physical development of declared urban areas. Thus it is clear that MUDA is the nodal agency for the all round development of Mangalore. So what is the role of MSCL? Prima facie, isn’t it superfluous!? And in principle MSCL should report to MUDA MD or Chairman and not to MCC Commissioner. Having said that, this latest proposal for development of truck bays and truck terminals should have been the thoughts of MSCL and not these High Tech designer Bus Stops in which MSCL seem to have specialised! Clearly those who are acting in the interest of Mangalooru, or any other city in India, have not done their appropriate home-work. There is an element of waste of resources in this unplanned approach to development. Who is responsible for this mismanagement!?