Valdar's Blog

Following the road in Shirady going bad only in month’s time after it was repaired, the High Court has sent a notice to three contractors who had carried out the repair work from October 2007 to May 30 2008 ( a period of nine months). The court notice has been issued on the basis of the Public Interest Litigation filed by one Sadashiva Rao sometime back.

According to the sources in legal department, the interim application came in the court following complaints from few others which made the High Court to decide on the notice to the contractors. K. Rama Bhat, counsel of the litigant argued that the central government was claiming that the Shirady road has been completely repaired but the roads have become un-motorable again.

It could be recalled that the Shirady ghat roads to a distance of 35 kilometers between Adda Holay to Gundya was kept closed for over nine months in 2007-08 for repairs and relaying. It was opened on May 28 for traffic. The Shirady ghat roads are the lifeline of the Dakshina Kannada district connects Mangalore with Bangalore which are two growth centres of the state. But since 2004 the mining trucks have wreaked havoc. The illegal mining lobby had paid their way to New Mangalore Port and ruining the roads of the state.

Since then the struggle of the people to travel between the two cities has been noticed by the entire world through the various media including print, television and world wide web. According to experts the mining lorries were loading twice their laden capacity which was loosening the road. According to the litigants document presented in the High Court the trucks were loading 45 tonnes where only 16 tonnes were supposed to be loaded. The weight dispensation on the road and distribution of pressure on the road as the trucks moved became exponentially larger than the real time gross weight bearing capacity of the road, which eroded the road faster.

The Contractors who carried out the road repairs have already indicated to the government that they would not be in a position to give guarantee to the roads if the government allows the overloaded trucks to ply on the repaired roads.

In the meanwhile it is now established that the mining lorries were the main culprits in the bad roads scenario. There are politicians in the Karnataka government who own the illegal mines are operating with no scruples to hold them. There are no rules as they own the government the transport department officials have been told not to stop any of the mining trucks passing through the gates and the weigh bridges all along the way have “prescribed” weight certificates for mining trucks says Agni Sridhar who is a group leader of the Ganigarike Rashtrikarana Horata Samithi.

The Samithi which held a press conference answered some of the questions regarding the bad state of Shirady roads. Mr. Sridhar said Shirady was one issue but the larger issues were sprouting out of the enormous money power that has been used by the illegal Mining barons to topple the democratic norms. He alleged that the BJP government was being run by a handful of illegal miners. The Horata Samithi has a large following of thinkers, intellectuals, writers and youth leaders who will whip up a movement against the illegal mining. They will demand immediate nationalization of mining industry.