Kishore Peraje
Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Feb 1: The people living by the roadside at Pandavarakallu and nearby areas on the way leading to Kakyapadavu from Pandavarakallu in Badagakajekaru village in the taluk have been suffering from untold miseries. They have no reprieve from clouds of dust which descend on them and their houses day in and day out. The villagers as well as businessmen who are facing problems on account of dust have blamed painstakingly slow pace of road development work between Pandavarakallu and Kakyapadavu for the spate of problems they are suffering from.

This main road connects Kakyapadavu to Madantyar. Out of this, the stretch of the road between Pandavarakallu and Kuruvaragoli is being developed now. This road is being laid by using a grant of five crore rupees sanctioned under Pradhan Mantri Grama Sadak scheme of the union government. The planning department of the state is executing the project.

As part of the project, the existing asphhalted road was dug up for an increased width and heaps of crushed stone were lined up on both the sides. Since then, the vehicles are forced to move on the mud road. The road has since been tarred between Kakyapadavu and Kuruvaragoli, whereas the balance stretch up to Pandavarakallu has been left uncompleted. The department has erred in first taking up the work of completing the road stretch that moves through forest area which is devoid of any human habitat, instead of covering the town stretch having houses and business places.

The people say that the work has been left unattended because of shortage of materials. The road, which had not been asphalted since the last 15 years, had been taken up for development during March last year because of the interest evinced by district in-charge minister, B Ramanath Rai.

Buses, auto rickshaws, jeeps and two-wheelers make use of this muddy road, giving rise to dust all through the day. People using the road and living by the side of the road have been falling sick. Agriculture and vegetable growers are facing losses. Heavy vehicles loaded with crushed stones create further problems by damaging the muddy road. People living and conducting business on this road have been fed up with this problem, and waiting the remaining work to be taken up and completed.

A culvert is being built across the road near Pandavarakallu town, and an alternative road has been provided through the land owned by an individual by the side of the road. Although it has been over five months since this work began, the culvert is yet to be completed. A milk depot located by the side of this culvert is also covered by thick dust always. The locals say that during the last rainy season, this road had become slushy, and that they had somehow managed with the trouble with the hope that their ordeal would end soon. They say their life will turn hellish if the road work and the culvert are not completed before the onset of monsoon this year. They have urged the officials of the department and people's representatives to take interest in hastening the works and complete the same at the earliest.

A local, Narayana Bhat, says the road development work was very much required for the people of the region, but regretted that the works are moving very slow because of lack of will power on the part of the concerned. He said that the concerned had done work happahazardly at their will, by keeping the work at the stretch where the population and traffic are thick pending and doing the other works at their will. 'We went through lot of hardships during monsoon season and also because dust during summer. The problem can be mitigated to some extent by arranging to liberally sprinkle the dusty patches of the road with water thrice a day,' he felt.