Kozhikode: Residents blocked the busy Palakkad – Kozhikode highway at Angadippuram on Wednesday after the road authorities closed down entry to a bylane where more than 3,000 people were living. The authorities blocked the road without even leaving space for walking and arrogantly turned down the requests of the residents.
The residents then got onto the road and blocked the traffic as they had no other option. “Nowhere else in the world such a slow moving work would have happened. We have been left to suffer from this rail overbridge works for so long. We were made to take a roundabout route of more than 25 kilometres when the authorities blocked the traffic on the highway during night hours between Angadippuram and Perinthalmanna. Now they have blocked our road entirely, not even leaving space for two-wheelers or for pedestrians,” Arun Narayanan, a resident of Angadippuram, said.
The road and Railway authorities heaped soil on the entrance of this road of the highway to allow the workers to complete a pillar work for the over bridge.
Instead of blocking the road during night hours and finishing the works by morning, the authorities chose to close the road during daytime. When the residents went to talk to the engineer of the works, he spoke arrogantly and asked them to do whatever they wanted.
“We went to the engineer, asking him to find a solution to our problem. We told him that if there is a medical emergency, we will not have any other way to reach the hospital other than this road. But he insulted us and shouted back, telling us that we could do whatever we want, and they will not open the road. So we went to the road and blocked the traffic,” said Saran Vasudev, another resident.
Later the district collector, local MLA and other officials were informed, and police rushed to the spot. People stood their ground and said they will not move from the road unless their problem was solved.
Police and the district administration have told us that the blockade will be removed in a day. If they do not do that, we will continue our protests. The overbridge works have been carried out in the most unscientific way. There are no workers available for completing the works which has already been delayed by several years,” he added.
