A local BJP Corporator in Mangaluru, Manohar Shetty made news on Wednesday after he entered the manhole to clear garbage that was accumulated in the rainwater drain.
This is reported as a rare incident where an elected representative of a state who entered the manhole on his own. This garnered a lot of praise for Manohar Shetty of the Kadri-Kambala ward. A huge stormwater drain began to overflow after heavy rains in the word. A lot of garbage was coming out of the drain which was stuck inside. The drainage water was flowing on the road causing difficulties to people and even causing a traffic jam.
After repeated attempts to clean the drain failed, Corporator Shetty summoned laborers to clean the drain. However, they refused to enter the manhole citing danger as it is monsoon season. After that, the asked the city corporation to send a vehicle that has a high-speed water jet. That attempt too failed. Finally, the corporator took the job into his own hands. He said,
“I requested the jet operator to go inside the stormwater drain and try to clear the clogged pipe using a high-speed water sprayer. He refused to do so claiming that he was not authorized for that kind of a job. The situation was getting worse. No one was ready to enter. Then, I decided to enter the manhole and clean the clogged pipe.”
Social Media Trends Manohar Shetty
After he entered the manhole, four of his workers followed his footsteps. He said,
“It was about eight feet deep and was pitch dark inside. Using torches, we cleaned it for half a day and cleared the garbage stuck inside. Everyone is used to such things in a place like Mangaluru. We can’t force poor people to enter a manhole to clean the pipes for us. If something goes wrong, who will take responsibility? Which is why I decided to do the job myself. We can’t depend on officials for everything.”
The photos of Shetty entering the manhole went viral on social media. Reacting to that, he said,
“We are elected representatives. If we can do something quickly, we must do that. In Mangaluru, it rains heavily during the four months of monsoon; we can’t postpone such things. We had to do something immediately and we did just that.”
Source: News 18
