From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Aug 30: Ridiculing the expertise of the engineers responsible for planning and building the busy Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway must be given Padmabhushan or other awards, said KPCC Chief D K Shivakumar ridiculing the engineers who did not have even the common
sense that the national highway must be built at an elevation.

The toll road on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway has become a tank, he said urging Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to take immediate action to pinpoint the lapses and punish the culprits.

Speaking to media persons in Bengaluru on Tuesday, Shivakumar said the engineers and planners should have known that proper arrangements for flow of rain water and other channels must be made in the beginning. ``Construction of roads and highways is not just putting cobble stones, concrete or tar and making money,’’ he said.

The KPCC Chief said if the condition of the national highways is in such a pitiable condition, one shudders to think of the condition of roads in rural areas. He said he will visit Ramanagara, Channapatna, Kanakapura and other areas which bore the brunt of heavy rains and would do his best to instil confidence in the suffering people.

He said the administrative machinery of the government must be quick to respond to such tragedies and urged the government to make arrangements to distribute cheques for compensation on the spot immediately instead of promising after a week or 10 days. The people whose houses were collapsed or severely damaged must be rehabilitated in a safer places.

Shivakumar said he is aware of the importance of water to farmers as he comes from a farming family and had also served as Energy and Irrigation Minister. There must be some permanent planning and steps to save rain water which would flow to sea. The Mekedatu padayatra of the Congress party was aimed at demanding steps to save excess Cauvery water flowing into the sea and helping people to get drinking water, produce power and irrigate farm lands.