Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)
Mangaluru, Jul 3: After the residents of Kenjar Bajpe raised objections on survey being conducted by Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) for railway electrification work, a meeting was held on Tuesday, July 2 to decide upon an alternative solution.
On June 20, residents of Kenjar had taken KPTCL officials to task when they arrived to conduct survey. The same was reported by Daijiworld.
As a result of the objections, KPTCL assistant commissioner Ravichandran and officials met with the locals to discuss the issue.
KPTCL had earlier installed high tension wires over farmlands and houses located at Kenjar Bajpe. The wires pose risk to the villagers, who are living under a sense of fear since then.
The high tension wires have claimed several lives in this region. Recently, a farmer who was working in the field was electrocuted after coming in contact with a high tension wire.
Now for the purpose of railway electrification, the officials opted the same spot for the wires to pass. When the officials arrived to conduct the survey, they faced opposition from the locals.
Assistant commissioner Ravichandran ordered officials to consider the demand of the locals and reassess the problem and decide on an alternative solution. He also urged the locals to co-operate during the survey and requested presence of a local representatives during survey for transparency.
An official said," Based upon the feasibility, we will come up with a decision. We will analyze the situation and look into the demands put forth by the locals.”
Speaking to Daijiworld, Prakash Shetty, a resident said, “Locals have pressurized KPTCL against installing high tension wires across the farm lands at Kenjar. This poses great risk to the lives of residents. We have strongly objected to install another high tension wire, so the officials have come up with new proposal of increasing the height of the existing tower and lower the number of towers. So we demand the officials to take those high tension wires from the acquisition land that belongs to a person called Nagarjun and we have no objection for it. We are adamant on not to provide additional land for high tension wire towers.”