Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Aug 26: The residents of Mudarangady and Padoor villages near Padubidri in the district stopped Udupi Power Corporation Ltd (UPCL) contractors from detonating rocks through bore blast process on Thursday August 25, alleging that such a blast will damage their houses. The preparation for the blast was being made for the second phase work of UPCL, which generates power by using coal, for its ash pond near Santoor village. 

The contractors had made elaborate preparations for blasting huge rocks at the spot by rigging a 20 feet hole for bore blast. The local residents, who had got advance information about the work, had given written complaints to 11 departments including deputy commissioner, mines and geology department and environment.

Seeing that the contractors were not prepared to heed to their requests, and were going ahead with the blasts, local residents, under the leadership of taluk panchayat president, Devadas Hebbar, zilla panchayat member, Arun Shetty Padoor, Mudarangady gram panchayat president, Sunilraj Shetty, former president, Ravindra Prabhu, St Francis Church priest, Fr Louis D’Sa, Janet Barboza, Nagesh Bhat etc visited the site. When they demanded for production of permission for undertaking the blast, the workers failed to do so. The workers were asked to stop work. The contractors were asked to get permission from the department of mines and geology for conducting the blasts, and then approach the local gram panchayat for its permission to begin work.

Huge rocks are embedded in earth at the spot where the second phase ash pond of UPCL is proposed to be built. If blast is conducted, over 50 houses that are located within a distance of 100 to 200 metres may suffer extensive damages, the locals fear. During the first phase work, cracks had developed in walls of houses located up to half a km from the blast site, the locals said.