As patience finally gave way to anger over the continued, three-year neglect of repair work on the main road connecting National Highway 7, residents and students from Doddapyayalagurki and the surrounding villages staged a protest on Monday for over three hours.
The protesters blocked the National Highway and refused to withdraw the stir. They told police that the National Highway would be blocked until work began on laying a service road and repairing the main road, which is in bad condition.
They also demanded the presence of Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner and officers from National Highway Authority.
Deputy Superintendent of Police A B Devaiah and Tahsildar N Bhaskar’s efforts to convince protesters to withdraw their protest went in vain.
At one point, a heated argument began between the police and protesting students. Finally, officers from National Highway Authority, police and district administration were forced to give directions to start the repair work.
“Officers have not taken any action even after repeated pleas. So we have come together to get the work done,” said Narayanareddy, who was leading the protest.
Krishnamurthy, a retired engineer explained that the poor condition of the road had led to accidents. “Many a times, autorickshaws, KSRTC buses have had difficult time passing through this road.
I had an accident here and do not want that to be repeated on anyone else. So I have joined the protest and most of the people who have took part in the protest have been inconvenienced by the bad condition of road,” he said.
Initially, when the protest started, police personnel took it lightly. But within moments, people from surrounding villages also joined the stir and at last hundreds of people were on the protest site. Understanding the seriousness of the protest, DySP and Tahsildar visited the place. But both could not control the situation.
So higher officers were called and stir was called off only after the work began.
Leaders V Narayanappa, Byrareddy, Manu, Sunil, Narasimhamurthy, C Manjunath, H V Krishnappa and others participated in the protest.
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