Inchara Udupi
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Apr 28: Backed by the support of villagers, the local leaders on Sunday April 27 drove away a team of officials that had descended on their village without providing any prior information to them in advance, to conduct a survey for drawing high tension power lines between Nandikoor to Padoor in the district.
The residents of the area saw that a team had reached Sooryagudde between Belapu and Kalathoor villages, for conducting survey relating to laying high tension power line in the area. Shivaram Shetty, who heads Kalathoor Janajagruti Samiti, arrived at the spot along with a number of villagers from Paiyar, and collected information about the work for which the team had reached the spot, by questioning the surveyor and his team of labourers. The team gave information that it wanted to conduct survey for drawing high tension power line from Nandikoor substation to Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd being set up at Padoor.
As soon he got the information that villagers had stopped a team which wanted to conduct survey for laying high tension power line, JDS Udupi district president, Deviprasad Shetty, rushed to the spot. He noted that ISPRL and Udupi Power Corporation Ltd had often been engaging in actions which create a sense of suspicion in the minds of the villagers. He warned that the villagers are prepared to put up strong resistance unless the companies get rid of this attitude and take them into confidence before undertaking any project.
Hundreds of villagers led by former president of Kutyar gram panchayat, Nityanand Shetty, and vice president, Praveen Kumar Gurme, participated in the protest.