Bhatkal TMC resumes pending road works after monsoon; residents have a new reason to express dismay

Bhatkal 4 December 2018: (Bhatkallys News Bureau) Bhatkal Town Municipal Council (TMC) after much talks about the delay, finally resumed the pending road works last week which were put on hold owing to monsoon, most of the work were sanctioned before the monsoon but were uninitiated. However, after several follow-ups and verbal enquiries to the TMC Engineer Umesh, the pending work resumed earlier last week at Usman Nagar first cross where the construction of road was sanctioned before the monsoon and Karnataka assembly elections earlier in May this year which were put on hold due to the Election code of conduct which bars administrations of carrying out any developmental work. The code of conduct was immediately followed by beginning of monsoon after May 12 elections, further testing the patience of local residents, wanting to see repaired roads in their respective localities. However, after a temporary sigh of relief of resumed work, residents are now finding another reasons for complaints as after initializing the work of constructing new road, it has once again been halted after laying jelly stones on road, a situation, the administration credits to the scarcity of construction materials including scarcity in supply of sand for the construction of roads. A week after laying jelly stones at Usman Nagar first cross, where the work first initiated signalling the resumption of all the work in other parts of the town as well, the work has not moved an inch and is resulting in inconvenience to the residents as the road connecting their houses is unusable for more than a week now. To add more to the woes of the residents the roads have been dug in the middle to mark the sewage passing, which blocks the passage of any vehicle on the road. One of the residents added, "If there was scarcity of materials, why did they start the work at first place? This is leading to more inconvenience to us than we were having while using the old road, yes it was in a bad condition but was usable, what will we do if the main connecting road to our homes are disconnected? The other road we have is dangerous with no street lights at night, with bushes and no concrete road it is not motor-able, we are into a fix now, we don't know how many more month will it take for them to 'repair' this now". It will be interesting to see how the administration will tackle the scenario and come out to the rescue of the residents battling this problem, it has already been more than a week now and there has not been any official's visit as of now, Bhatkallys.com calls on the new TMC Chief Officer to visit the spot and explain the situation to the residents and to arrange for an alternate solution for them. (Bhatkallys Special News Bureau/ Ismail Zaorez)