Despite the fact that about 20 families and other residents have remained cut off from the mainland for nearly six months at the Batpady end point near the Karnataka-Kerala border, the government and the district administration have not restored the fisheries road that was washed away by sea erosion in July.
And this has happened when the Minister for Ports and Fisheries himself is the Minister in charge of the district. Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary had, on October 29, promised that the administration would ask Nirmithi Kendra to execute works on the construction of a sea protection wall and the restoration of the road without going for tenders. The government was asked to release at least ₹2 crore for the same and the work would immediately be taken up, he had said. But not a single stone has been moved since and the residents continue to battle the odds. When The Hindu visited Batpady on Saturday, the battered road was seen in the same state it was in July. Residents walked through private properties to get to their homes with essentials in hand.
Hameed Batpady, a former member of the local gram panchayat and a resident, told The Hindu that posses of officials and politicians had visited since the complete destruction in July. However, there is no relief in sight, he said, lamenting the apathy.
Batpady Abdullah, another resident, said the agencies had ignored his early warning in February that the road was bound to be eroded if protection measures were not taken before the monsoon. Shore of about 400 metres width and 500 metres length was swallowed by the sea in the last five years, he added. Sources in the Ports and Inland Waterways Department said a proposal on building a sea protection wall construction at a cost of ₹45 lakh at the affected site was sent to the government through the Deputy Commissioner. However, there has been no approval from the government so far. “Many times, we execute works without there being any sanction when there is a hue and cry because of sea erosion. Later, we struggle to make the payment to the contractor concerned,” a source said.