Residents of a village in Udupi district have been forced to walk on a dangerous path after authorities failed to make provisions for a road or a bridge while constructing a canal as part of Varahi Lift Irrigation Project.

About 250 members belonging to the Schedule Tribe community live in 30 houses in Soni village located in Siddapura village of Kundapur in Udupi district.
Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, Chitte Rajgopal Hegde, a social worker, said the village is located around a lake and there are two temples there.

To meet their basic requirements, the villagers have to reach Karebail which is about one and a half kilometres away.

“They need to walk daily to Karebail junction to meet their daily requirements that includes visiting provision stores, bus stand or a dairy unit. They walk a dangerous path that is about three feet wide on the concrete slab of a drain constructed for the flow of water from forests and hills between Soni and Karebail junction at Dyanooru. In case there is an accident, it is really difficult to conduct a rescue operation,” he said.

If not this route, they will have to travel for five kilometres to reach places like Shankarnarayana.

About four years ago, when the canal was being constructed between Soni and Karebail, people of the village had made several requests to the engineers to make a bridge across the drain.

The work for the canal began in the year 2008 and the project was inaugurated by chief minister Siddaramaiah last year. Priyanka Mary Francis, CEO of Udupi Zilla Panchayat, has assured she will look into the issue. A team is likely to visit the village soon.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City News> Bangalore / by Deepthi Sanjiv / TNN / October 20th, 2016