Karkala: Road roller accident - Locals blame RNS company, demand measures
R B Jagadish
Daijiworld Media Network – Karkala (EP)
Karkala, Nov 9: The residents of Belman have expressed anguish at the RNS company for its careless attitude towards work which they said affected other vehicles and commuters using the road. They blamed the company for the accidents that have occurred on this stretch road.
On Thursday November 7, Nandalike Laxmi Janardhan temple priest Madhusoodhan Bhat and his wife Shruthi were injured and their child died when the company’s road roller was suddenly driven in the reverse direction running over their bike.
The locals, shocked and annoyed with the incident, assembled at the Belman panchayat office on Friday November 8 and insisted that the company make good the loss as it was responsible for the accident. They said that the lack of road signs and proper access road for free flow of traffic by the company, while the road work is in progress, has increased accidents.
They said that the RNS company had shown indifference by not visiting the aggrieved Madhusoodhan Bhat’s family. They urged that they visit them.
K S Sanjeeva Shetty, project manager of RNS company, spoke and apologized for the death of the child.
The locals demanded sign boards on the road where the work is in progress. They also said that the speed of express buses plying on Belman road, should be curtailed and large vehicles should ply slowly giving way to smaller vehicles.
Their other demands were to conduct work on a stretch of 2 km of road at a time and complete the work as soon as possible, the workers should be instructed about safety precautions and to assign workers in the front and at the back of drivers of the road rollers.
Zilla panchayat members Suprith Shetty, taluk panchayat members Xavier D’ Mello, Karkala rural police inspector Mahadev Shetty, Panchayat development official Shekar Nayak, N M Hegde, Tukaram Shetty, businessman Shashidhar Shetty, Shodhan Shetty, Rotary organization president Suryakanth Shetty, Jaycee president Raghunath Nayak Punar, JDS spokesperson Deepak Kamath, V K Rao Nandalike, L Seetharam Bhat, Grama panchayat president Shanker Kunder and others were present.