Daijiworld Media Network - Moodbidri (SP)
Moodbidri, Oct 16: As per information collected by Sudhakar Poonja of Mijar Nagarika Hotara Samiti in the form a letter he has received from the concerned, the proposal for expansion of national highway 169 from Mangaluru to Karkala is pending in the office of the district deputy commissioner. This information has come as a shock as people, who had come to trust the claims of people's representatives that everything is ready and the development works on this highway will begin shortly.
This road, which runs from Bikarnakatte, Mangaluru to Sanoor in Karkala via Moodbidri, is so wretched that several accidents keep happening here everyday. Many are forced to spend months together in hospitals, spending their precious time and savings. Several others painfully get confined to beds at home for weeks. Some cases get registered in police stations, and deaths which occur after sometime since the accidents go unnoticed.
As per provisions, families of people dying in accidents on national highways in India are eligible for a compensation of five lac rupees but almost no one takes up with the department for this sum, it is gathered. People who rush when politically or communally motivated murders happen, never visit the houses of people dying out of highway accidents, Sudhakar Poonja laments.
Pooonja mentions that the Gurpur bridge built in 1923 is in precarious condition and it violently shakes when vehicles move oer it. Poonja, who succeeded in getting Mijar bridge sanctioned by actively pursuing the matter, says that the petition submitted to the government, Prime Minister, and competent authority in 2013 seeking development of this bridge has been gathering dust. Poonja welcomes the statement of MP here that the highway expansion will begin in 2019 and that before that NITK officials will test Gurpur bridge for its carrying capacity but wants to know which alternative routes would be allotted for vehicles if the study finds that the bridge is weak.
Poonja says that leaders who take delegation on various issues to chief minister, Prime Minister etc, never bother to do something onthese lines about highways. He mentions about a three-month-old accident in which a dentist aged 29 from Mijar, who suffered critical injuries, continues to be treated in a hospital and that his clinic remains closed and his only avenue of income has dried up, just because the authorities have not repaired this road. He also points out to the accident which happened at Kaikamba on October 10 in which the body of the bike rider, Bhaskar Gowda, who was crushed under a tipper when trying to avoid a pothole, was so badly mutilated that only bits and pieces had remained. He wants activists and leaders to stop delivering lectures and finding fault with others, and do something to stop such deaths and devastation.
"One of the ministers says that everything has been cleared while a MLC from the same party says that there are certain objections for it. He has urged people's representatives and deputy commissioner to sit together and finalize the plan of the road, which keeps changing frequently. He also wants to know whether there is a monitoring system for the condition of national highways and whether the agency concerned has studied the situation of this national highway. Vehicles including buses plying on this road face danger every minute, he mentions.
Poonja wonders why the proposal to expand this highway is pending since 17 years and why the officials and owners of buses using this road are not discussing the matter and finding a permanent solution to this problem. He wonders what is withholding officials and vehicle owners from putting pressure to make things happen here, and wants to know whether the concerned are afraid of earning ire of people's representatives or they want to avoid confrontation with certain people's representatives. He also wants to know whether the concerned are happy by just changing the board from state highway to national highway and leaving the road unattended since the last 17 years.