Pics: Registered runners, especially students, struggled to get T-shirts and caps to participate in ‘Run for Swachh Sankalpa’ organised by HDMC at Tolanakere, Hubballi on Sunday; runners had to run behind HDMC staff to get medals and certificatesafter the run at Unkal lakeHubballi: Runners and cyclists in the city faced chaos at the ‘Run for Swachh Sankalpa’ organised by HDMC under Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 (IEC) on Sunday. They were forced to run from one counter to another to get a T-shirt. Officials distributed very few T-shirts and said the stock was over. Many students were disappointed as they did not get certificates and medals, though they completed the run of about 7 km. HDMC failed to provide material, as assured, to registered runners.Chaos started at the only counter set up at Tolanakere Circle. HDMC staff neither verified the registration of participants nor made them form a proper line. Instead, they started announcing that T-shirts and caps were available at another counter. As people rushed there, they got the same reply within a few minutes. “They are just doing it for formalities and to have some photographs and videos to show to the Union govt,” alleged Premanath Patil, a civil engineer. Sunil Radder, a techie, said that HDMC did not close online registration intentionally to show a big number of participants. “They announced through some social media influencers that they will give a smart watch to winners. However, there was no staff at the finishing point at Unkal Lake when front runners reached there after running seriously,” he added. Geeta, Sujata, Kavya, and some other women participants said that the HDMC staff, who came late to the destination, picked some runners who were almost after number 10 in the race as prize winners. “They did not count Manikanth Surpur, who was the winner. We only pressured the staff to check some CCTV or other channels and give justice to the right runner. After a heated argument, they considered the real winners,” they shared. Manjunath, Shrinivas, Sahaj, Chandan, and other school and college students said that they neither got T-shirts nor medals. “Only empty certificates were distributed to everyone, and even persons who did not run obtained them easily. It was a badly organised event, and we decided not to participate in any of HDMC’s events in future,” they asserted. When asked, HDMC commissioner Rudresh Ghali said that the participation of citizens was in greater numbers than expected, and the situation went out of control. A group of citizens told him that HDMC needs to learn crowd management and handle events with due respect towards citizens. Meanwhile, non-BRTS city buses were directed to run in the BRTS corridor for 2–3 hours in the morning. Following the direction, all city buses and vehicles ran through the BRTS flyover, skipping the Unkal Cross stoppage. Passengers were forced to deboard either at BVB or at Unkal, where there was no way to come out.
