News and Pic by Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (RD/CN)

Bantwal, Dec 19: The residents of Narikombu village staged a protest on Thursday December 18, urging the district administration to asphalt the stretch of between Panemangalur and Shamboor, under the Pradhan Mantri’s Gram Sadak Yojana.

The protesters led by Narikombu gram panchayat and Nagarika Samiti gathered at Shamboor on Thursday and shouted slogans against the zilla panchayat engineers and contractors. 

Narikombu gram panchayat president A Anand, addressing the protesters, said that the asphalting work, which is to be undertaken with financial assistance from the union government, is being unnecessarily delayed which causes great hardships to the villagers. 

Zilla panchayat executive engineer Narasimha Raju said that the work is being delayed owing to technical reasons. Besides, a proposal has been forwarded to the union government seeking additional funds to maintain higher quality as heavy vehicles of over 40 tonnes, belonging to AMRPower and Ircon, a road building company, ply on the same road.

The protest was called-off after assurances by the zilla panchayat executive engineer that the work would be completed by January 31, 2009.

Narikombu gram panchayat vice-president Premanath Shetty, members Purushottam Salian, Koragappa Bangera, Prakash, Ashok, Yashoda, Albert Menezes, Nagarika Samiti convener Krishnappa Naik, and honorary president Madhav, were present on the occasion.