R B Jagadish
Daijiworld Media Network - Karkala (SP)

Karkala, Feb 13: Almost all the promises given by people's representatives and politicians from various parties since the last several decades have been proved to be fake. Construction of roads and bridges have remained only in promises. Because of this, people of a village are forced to use the temporary wooden bridge they build every year for themselves across a rivulet flowing in full flow, putting their lives to danger.

One can witness this phenomenon at Nallur in the taluk. A mud road that leads to the left of Parappady on the state highway that passes between Bajagoli and Hosmar winds through stretches of steep slopes, pits and ponds in a zigzag route. If one travels for five km on this road, they reach Sringeri-Dharmasthala main road. However, before reaching this spot, halfway down, the road is interrupted by Manjalthar rivulet, which badly is in need of a bridge. This bridge is required to connect Nallur with Mala Hukratte. If this is done, these areas can be accessed without loss of too much time. If one has to reach Mala Hukdratte from Parappady by vehicle, he has to travel for 15 km. If Lingamurdre bridge is constructed across the said rivulet, the same distance gets pruned down to 8 km. Although people of Parappady fall under the jurisdiction of Nallur village, they depend on Mala Hukratte for their routine needs.

Days before the onset of monsoon season, locals come together and put in voluntary service to build a temporary wooden bridge over this rivulet. Everyone including young children and aged ones have to cross this bridge during rainy season, duly holding on to their balance without any concession based on health, gender, or age. If one loses balances slightly, he is sure to meet with death. As the bridge is located just six and half feet above water level, when there is heavy rainfall, the bridge gets washed away by gushing water. There have been several occasions in the past when the bridge got dragged away by force of water. As a protection for the wooden bridge, it is tied with the help of strong iron wire to a nearby huge tree.

If we carefully examine, we can see remnants of asphalted road for a stretch of 1.5 km starting from the state highway. This road is full of potholes and pits with only a semblance of asphalt here and there. It is gathered that this road had been built out of grants releleased by the current and former MLAs from their local area development funds. People are saying that this road was asphalted in such a substandard way because of the love and respect the MLAs have towards the local populace mostly made up of scheduled caste community, who have been living here since ages.

The fact that people have been using this road, which is neither fit for movement of vehicles, nor for human beings, looks like a mockery of democratic principles.