MANGALORE: The district administration was caught unawares, as delegates to the 17th National Youth Festival began streaming in hordes ahead of the National Youth Festival planned from January 12. Over 1,100 delegates from northern states descended on Mangalore throwing ongoing arrangements out of gear.
Chaos reigned at the registration counters in T M A Pai International Convention Centre on Tuesday, mainly due to lack of volunteers. With the bar-coding machine developing a technical snag, volunteers manning the entrance were forced to allow wives and children accompanying the delegates into the dining hall. A team of cooks from New Delhi who had bagged the contract descended a week ago, forcing the authorities to make alternative arrangements for the cooks. With the arrival of delegates, the administration was forced to alter the contract to ensure that food for delegates was available from Tuesday onwards.
Home Guards who were asked to take their positions from January 11, were summoned to T M A Pai Hall to streamline the chaos on Tuesday. Coordination among different committees was also missing, as delegates were forced to wait endlessly for buses to pick and drop them at hostels allotted to them.
Food and Accommodation Sub Committee Chairman and Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) Commissioner Harish Kumar told Express that all the 1,100 delegates who arrived on Tuesday had been accommodated in different hostels.