Road widening still a distant dream
Government fails to release the funds allotted
KOZHIKODE: After six years of protests, litigation and assurances, the Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu road widening remains a distant dream.
The Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu road committee on Thursday met Kozhikode MP M.K. Raghavan and sought his intervention to allocate funds for the land acquisition along the 8.4- km stretch.
The committee members, including historian MGS Narayanan, will announce their future protest programmes on September 16 after a seminar on the same issue.
The government so far has given only Rs 25 crore from the budget allocation of Rs 100 crore for the project. The amount was solely for acquisition of 36 shops at Malaparamba junction.
“Only these shops have been acquired in the last 6 years. Government had assured to allocate another Rs 25 crore to continue the acquisition process but not a penny was given from that. We were told that '10 crore had been allocated but that also has not been given. So we will go ahead with the protests,” Mr M.P. Vasudevan, general secretary of the committee, told Deccan Chronicle.
Mr M.K. Raghavan assured the committee members that he would start a protest against the delay in the acquisition.
“Out of 555 land owners along this road, 425 people have already been given their consent for acquisition. The acquisition rate has been finalised and the same was sanctioned by the State Empowered Committee. The process can continue only if government releases the funds,” Mr Vasudevan said.
Meanwhile, the committee members are also not happy with the stand of Kozhikode district administration, which is opposing the Chief Minister’s assurance of handing over 2.82 acres of government land along this road to smoothen the traffic flow.
Sources told DC that the district administration took the stand that if this land is allocated prior to widening, there could be encroachments.
The committee members now demand that the Chief Minister should take the initiative to allot the funds and also to release the government land along the road.