Daijiworld Media Network – Puttur

Puttur, Sep 29: Following a media report highlighting the plight of an elderly couple who had been virtually confined to their home for the past year due to lapses in four-laning of the National Highway, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Mangaluru Division Project director Abdullah Javed Azmi and a team of engineers visited the spot on Monday evening and assured them that steps would be taken to resolve the issue.

Gilbert Anthony Menezes (78), a resident of Gandhi Park in the heart of Uppinangady, lives with his 73-year-old wife, who is suffering from health issues. Despite the need to take her to hospital frequently for treatment, the couple had been unable to take her out of the house in a vehicle as the access road to their home had been destroyed due to the highway expansion work. The couple had been facing difficulties for nearly a year, and their repeated appeals for assistance had yielded no result. Media reports highlighted their plight and exposed the lapse in the ongoing work.

Puttur MLA Ashok Kumar Rai took serious note of the couple’s plight after media reports and summoned NHAI Mangaluru Division Project director Abdullah Javed Azmi to his office. He directed him to ensure that the elderly couple affected by the construction work received a solution at the earliest.

Accordingly, Javed visited Uppinangady on Monday evening and inspected the possible measures to resolve the difficulties faced by the Menezes couple. He assured that, with the assistance of the local administration, obstacles created by neighbours would be removed, the electricity pole obstructing access would be shifted and a road would be constructed to the couple’s house.

Contractor company engineer Raghunath Reddy, Uppinangady Block Congress president U T Tausif and others were present on the occasion.

Gilbert Anthony Menezes expressed his gratitude to media for highlighting their problem, following which NHAI Mangaluru Division Project director Abdullah Javed Azmi and other officials visited the spot to assess their difficulties.