The Hindu

Udupi, Nov 5: The Udupi Zilla Panchayat has given the National Highways Department time till November 15 to repair National Highway 17, which runs through the district.

Panchayat member Janardhan Tonse, who raised the issue at the general body meeting here on Tuesday, said that the work of filling potholes from Sasthan to Santhekatte had been taken up by the National Highways Department. However, the work was not up to the mark, he said. The stones that were used to fill the potholes were already coming out. There was a lot of dust also, he said. The highway was in need of proper repair, he said.

An official from the National Highways Department said that an amount of Rs. 50 lakh had been released from the Calamity Relief Fund for the repair of National Highway 17, and an additional Rs. 1.5 crore was expected shortly. The damaged portions of the highway would be repaired soon, he said.

The department had submitted an estimate of Rs. 9 crore to higher-ups, he said. But since it had been proposed that the highway would be widened into a four-lane road, higher officials had asked the department to prepare an estimate of Rs. 4.5 crore. This estimate had been submitted, the official said.

Panchayat chief executive officer N.S. Prasanna Kumar gave an ultimatum directing the highway officials to fill all the potholes on the highway by November 15.

Member Bhujanga Shetty said that important issues such as distribution of title deeds and ration cards for poor families were not getting addressed at the weekly Janaspandana meetings. Building upon this complaint, member Madan Kumar alleged that the Janaspandana meetings were only a token gesture, and the officials were not responding to the problems put forth at those meetings. The programme had now been reduced to a platform for distributing cheques under the Bhagyalakshmi, Sandhya Suraksha schemes, he said.