Silvester D'Souza

Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (MS)

Kundapur, Apr 12: Though the national highway work is going on since some years, it is still not complete. All the deadlines that were given so far by the people representatives and NHAI officials are not met. If the work is not completed by May 15, there is a possibility of artificial floods which may cause damage to public property as well as loss of lives. An appeal in this regard was submitted to AC K Raju of the taluk by Kundapur and Kota national highway protest committee.

The appeal submitted by the committee says, "Criminal case should be booked on the company which has taken the contract for the job for its laziness, irresponsibility and neglect of public interest. The pending work should be completed within the next 15 days. If it is not possible, a criminal case should be booked on the present contractor and alternative arrangements should be made to complete the road construction work.

"Navayug company, which has the contract for the work, has not yet amended their old trick of giving false deadlines and assurances of completion of work. The company, which assured to release the Kundapur Shastri Circle overbridge and Basrur Moorukai embankment for public use by March 31, has not done the job till April 10. At present, no work is being done in these areas.

"When the information was sought, it came to light that the company has not paid the dues to its suppliers for which they have stopped supplying material. Moreover, Navayug is also not paying salaries to their employees so they have also stopped work. So the chances of getting this work completed before the onset of the monsoon are very slim."

It is also mentioned in the appeal to construct a service road at Kota. B Kishore Kumar, Rajesh Kaveri, Shashidhar Hemmady, Vikas Hegde, Shyamsundar Nayari, Kenchanur Somashekhar Shetty, Vivek, Ganesh Mendon, Pratap Shetty and Bhoja Poojary were present.