By Stanley G Pinto for Times of India Mangalore Edition
Yennehole (Karkala), Jan 24: An uneasy calm prevails in the non-descript village Yennehole, lying at the foothills of the Western Ghats .
This is the place where the now tainted super cop Daya Nayak constructed the ‘Radha Nayak Government High School’ and handed it over to the Karnataka state government in 2002. The villagers here see everything in black and white. For many ‘Dayanna’ ( b ro t h e r ) cannot have shades of g rey. Though they desist from giving him a clean chit, they question: How can a person who has done so much for the village be corrupt?
Narayana N aya k , N aya k ’s neighbour, who has been glued to the television ever since the story broke out, says “I cannot comment much. Though I am his neighbour since 1962, I hardly know him as he never comes here. He always stays in Mangalore with his sister.’’
The septuagenarian iterates that he cannot vouch for Nayak, but at the same breath adds that he cannot imagine an altruistic person being corrupt.
“He has not caused trouble in this village,’’ pointing at the direction of the school says Nayak. “He has only caused trouble to the terrorists,’’ he adds.
P Haji, government nominated member on the School Development and Maintenance Committee (SDMC), says that it was due to pressure from the people, Nayak took up the responsibility of building a school here.
He delineates that the village had only a primary school and children had to trudge miles to go to high school. After persistent efforts, government sanctioned the permission for a high school and later villagers pressed the taluk panchayat to sanction land for the building. After 6.5 acres of land was sanctioned, the villagers approached Nayak , says Haji.
Haji thinks that it is but natural to have doubts over the integrity of a person who has a school in his m o t h e r ’s name, without understanding the background. “His goodwill got us funds to build the school, otherwise we may not have had the school,’’ Haji said.
T he s ch o o l ’s strength is 285, though the village has only 300 households. Because of the facilities like computers and well kept laboratory, economically poor children come from other villages to the school.
Ramlah, a shopkeeper, whose daughter attends the school points out that he had heard of the charges against Nayak, but dismisses them as frivolous. “Most of villagers do not believe them.
But when one goes on hearing these allegations, sometimes you tend to believe them also,’’ he adds. There are a very few fence sitters too. “After all he is human. Can we trust a person just because of his one good deed?’’
Notwithstanding some doubting Thomasses, the entire village, though silently, is backing up their hero in his troubled times.
Daya Nayak along with Amitabh Bachchan, who inaugurated the Radha Nayak Government High School in Karkala Taluk of Udupi district on January 16, 2002.
The Radha Nayak Government High School in Karkala Taluk of Udupi district which Daya Nayak handed over to the Karnataka government in 2000.