Uppinangady, July 21: For more than four decades, his boat has been a 'lifeboat' and a means of transportation, especially during floods, for many people residing on the banks of Kumardhara and Nethravathi rivers that pass through Uppinangady and neighboring villages.
Now, the unexpected sale of the traditional boat by 70 year old Adamaka for Rs 8,000, has become a matter of concern for the local people who had benefitted from it in the past.
1974
Adamaka had bought his boat in the year 1968, when he was 27. In the year 1974, when there were severe floods and a part of town was under water, his boat was the main means of transportation of people and things from affected areas.
Inevitable
For Adamaka, the sale was inevitable. “I am now 70 years old and there is no one to help me to venture into the water. Moreover, expenditure exceeds the income in this old traditional boat. I had no other option but selling it,” he says.
Recalling his 43 years of experience in the water, he humbly says that he had saved 12 lives and recovered over 30 dead bodies of the people who drowned in the water.
“I had satisfaction in my work and I am really saddened that I had to sell my boat,” he laments.
Cheated
“Every year the Department of Revenue arranges monsoon precautionary meetings. They promise to pay an honorarium of Rs 300 every month during the rainy season for my emergency service. But, I did not receive any money so far from them,” says Adamaka, accusing the Department of cheating him.
Local people, who have benefitted from Adamaka's boat, say that it is responsibility of the government to take care of a man who has already dedicated more than four decades of his life for the service of people, endangering his own life.
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