Jadkal row awaits political parties

For the voters in Baindoor constituency, there is an issue which needs to be addressed soon. As the countdown for assembly election has begun, the villagers in Jadkal have raised the issue of developing Chakra Maidan - Hallihole road in Jadkal near Siddhapur to attract the attention of the candidates of various political parties.

Shimoga MP B Y Raghavendra had released Rs two crore for the development of Chakra Maidan road in 2011, but the work never completed due to the issue with obtaining permission from the forest department.

However, the PWD had initiated the work through piece contractors by the end  of monsoon of 2012. According to the records, 12 km of the road comes under social forestry department, one km falls under the PWD and another one km comes under Mookambika reserve forest. The forest department has not given permission for the road work in the forest area due to the High Court’s stay order stopping the developmental work in reserve forest area.

The village had made news in October 2012, when the villagers who were angered over the forest department for bringing stay, axed hundreds of trees overnight in Hulipare region in Jadkal. Hundreds of villagers were involved in this illegal act. The government had incurred a loss worth some lakhs as along with the trees, even electricity polls too were destroyed. Following the incident, Udupi Deputy Commissioner M T Reju, Assistant Commissioner Sadashiv Prabhu and others had visited the spot and cases were registered against 56 villagers. Cases were also registered against PWD officers. When the accused in case absconded, the case went to the court and the absconding villagers surrendered before the court.

After the incident, the forest department refused to give permission for the road work. As the department refused to give permission, the PWD officers, Baindoor MLA Lakshminarayana and former MLA Gopal Poojary submitted several memorandum to the deputy commissioner requesting to allot permission for the work. The DC then had ordered to give permission to the PWD to temporarily develop the road, after discussing the issue with the social forestry department.

As per the DC’s order, the potholes on the road were filled in 11 km road, but one km road in the reserve forest limits was pending due to the objection raised by the forest department. Senior officer of the wildlife department served a notice to the PWD and the road work stopped.

“We have made several requests with the deputy commissioner to pass an order to start the work,” says Jadkal GP member P K Prasad.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, PWD Engineer Chandrashekhar said that one km road between Chakra Maidan and Hallihole is under the social forestry department, under the reserve forest area and land has not been acquired yet. As per the provision to chop the trees by the side of main road, the trees will be chopped. The department is now waiting for the court’s order on the same, he said.