Mysuru: None too pleased with both Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) and Mysuru Urban Development Authority (Muda) for shirking their responsibility, and blaming each other, for failing to provide streetlights on the 42km-long Outer Ring Road (ORR), Mysuru MP Pratap Simha on Thursday said, “Both Muda and MCC are too busy passing the buck, while the public is being inconvenienced.”Expressing concerns over the rise in accidents on ORR, Simha said, “Accidents have increased manifold. Illegal activities are rampant, and despite the Supreme Court’s ban on bars and liquor outlets close to highways, many of them are operating along ORR.”Slamming the officials of both the civic agencies, Simha stated that installation and maintenance of streetlights did not fall under the ambit of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). “But, officials of Muda and MCC colluded to include a clause stipulating that it is NHAI’s responsibility,” the MP said.Simha also expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of the asphalting work on the key road. Dubbing the quality of the work undertaken on ORR ‘substandard’, he added, “Vast stretches of the road are riddled with potholes. Road design is faulty near the Sheshadripuram College, where the curve has been created in a highly unscientific manner, leading to many accidents.”The Parliamentarian also urged MCC authorities to take cognisance of trash being unloaded on the sides of the ORR. Simha suggested that a highway patrol team could keep such illegal activities in check.“Collusion between officials and politicians to make a windfall in all projects is what is hampering this country’s progress. Instead of focusing on the country’s development, politicians and officials are more concerned with the commission they get by executing projects,” he rued.However, Muda superintendent engineer Suresh Babu told the MP that maintaining ORR was an extremely expensive affair. “Muda does not possess the funds required to maintain the ring road. This is why we deemed it proper to hand over its upkeep to NHAI,” Babu said.Making it clear that illumining ORR was to be their top priority over the next three months, Simha told Muda authorities that maintenance of the road would be their responsibility in that period. “It can then be handed over to the MCC. Streetlights need to be installed along the 4.3km-stretch from Manandavadi Road to Nanjangud Road near Bandipalya on a priority basis. For the past seven months, this stretch has been in the dark without a single functioning streetlight,” he said.Simha then instructed MCC officials to raise the issue of maintaining ORR at the next council meeting, and to obtain approval for the road’s upkeep.

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