The year started with communal trouble and ended with it in certain pockets of Mangaluru Taluk in Dakshina Kannada forcing the government to call the Rapid Action Force (RAF) to the city. Barring this, peace prevailed in other parts of the district.

If two communities who lived cordially for many years clashed in Ullal in January, peace was disturbed at Ulaibettu on the outskirts of the city on religious grounds in early December.

Politically, the BJP retained its Mangaluru Lok Sabha seat for the seventh consecutive term in the parliamentary elections in May. Nalin Kumar Kateel made it to the Lok Sabha for the second term by defeating Congress veteran B. Janardhana Poojary by a margin of 1.43 lakh votes.

People expressed their anguish against the recommendations of the K. Kasturirangan Committee in declaring several villages as ecologically sensitive. Protests against the proposed Nethravathi diversion continued.

There was a hue and cry against banning Kambala, and lovers of the folk sport heaved a sigh of relief only after the Karnataka High Court allowed it, albeit with certain conditions.

Railway hopes

The year, though, had kindled high hopes among people in the region with regard to Railway infrastructure when D.V. Sadananda Gowda was made the Minister for Railways. However, this was short-lived with Mr. Gowda getting a very short tenure. Even within the short period, Mr. Gowda made earnest efforts to bring the infrastructure on track in the State in general and for the coastal region in particular. Setting a March 2016 deadline for the completion of Bengaluru-Hassan new line, proposal to introduce one more express train between Bengaluru and Mangaluru, proposal for a passenger train between Kasaragod and Byndoor via Mangaluru, were some of his contributions.

On the bus transport sector, operators — KSRTC as well as private — continues to be indifferent to passing on the benefit of reduced diesel price to passengers.

Headless MCC

The Mangaluru City Corporation remained without a regular Commissioner for six months though the Mayoral elections took place in March after a gap of more than a year of conducting the elections to the council of the city corporation. The Mayoral elections were delayed due to legal issues over reservation.

The city did not see any major infrastructure development projects and highway widening works between Talapady and Kundapur almost came to a halt.

The flight service between Mangaluru and Kuwait was suspended for some time. Works on constructing parallel taxi-way began at the Mangaluru International Airport. Towards the end of the year, Tulu-speaking people came together to celebrate the Vishwa Tuluvere Parba.

(The Hindu)