Karkala: Belman Residents Lay Seige to Nandalike Road for Indefinite Time - Demand Repairs
News & Pics: Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network – Karkala (RD/SB)
Karkala, Oct 20: The local residents of Belman near here are staging a protest by laying seige to Nandalike road from Wednesday October 20 morning for an indefinite time demanding urgent repairs to the deplored road.
The residents alleged that the deputy commissioner had announced in 2009 that Nandalike Road will be developed under Pradhan Mantri’s Gram Sadak Yojana and will be ready for use in June 2010. Meanwhile, the local Belman gram panchayat assured to lay drainage along the road. The owners of 11 laterite crushers who have their crusher units along the Nandalike road consented to do paver-finish of bitumen laid road. However, the road has not yet seen any development works and is in deplorable condition.
The local residents blocked all the access roads leading to Nandalike road at Gundyadka, Nelligudde, Koppala, Sooda and other by-lanes in the vicinity, in order to draw the attention of the district administration over the pathetic condition of the road. The locals are likely to take turns at various points ensuring a road block throughout the day and night, till a firm commitment from district administration comes in.
The locals alleged that despite the zilla panchayat engineering division’s ban on plying of over ten-tonne-capacity heavy vehicles, the crusher dumper trucks exceeding the limit ply on the road, which has further caused damage to the dirt road.
Karkala tahsildar Jagannat Rao paid a visit to the protest spots on Nandalike Road and assured support for the resident’s grievances.
Nandalike Muddana Mitra Mandali president Raviraj Bhat, Suhas Hegde of road-struggle committee, Shashidar Shetty of Nandalike Janahagruti Samiti, Arun Kumar, Suresh Rao, Joy Tellis, Gregory Menezes and Sandeep Kanchan among others were present.