JOIN USThe road to access education and achieve success was never a cakewalk for Anush A L, who bagged the first rank by scoring a perfect 625 out of 625 marks in the SSLC examinations.
From Anush’s house in Yennemajal to Bogayyanakere in Balpa village in Kadaba taluk, the three kilometre-long stretch is a mud road with plenty of potholes.
Anush is forced to walk on this unmetalled main road and travel further 15 kms in the school bus in order to reach his school, Kumaraswamy English medium school, at Vidyanagar in Subrahmanya.
Year after year, the residents who send their children to schools dump stones in order to fill up potholes and make the main road motorable, said Dinesh Yennemajalu. During monsoon, the miseries of residents increases as the stretch turns into a slushy road.
The rainwater flowing on the road, in the absence of culverts, makes it difficult for both vehicles and pedestrians to walk on the slushy road, villagers lamented. Anush highlights the miseries they faced while walking through the slush. His friends from the SC/ST Colony recollected how they all had to got down and pushed the school bus stuck in the slush.
School Bus Driver Satish K Rai Gejje said he used to pick up students from Bogayyanakere as he could not drive any further.
Even the 15 kms road from Balpa to the school is not a smooth ride, Satish added.
Incidentally, five years ago Balpa village was adopted by Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel under Prime Minister’s ‘Samsad Adarsha Grama’.
Kateel also had declared on implementing Rs 20-cr worth developmental programmes in Balpa.
A year ago, villagers had staged protests and complained to the government about the bad roads in Yennemajal, Beedigudde and Addabailu, health facilities and poor mobile network.
“There was no response even from our MLA S Angara,” Dinesh said. As Dinesh and others look forward to getting their woes redressed, the achievement of children like Anush is a beacon of hope.