Udupi, Mar 26: Venting their anger at initiating the ISPRL project on privately-owned land in Padoor in Udupi district without conducting a proper survey, several villagers jointly protested against the pipeline passing through Thokur-Padur.
The villagers opposed the underground pipeline project which was underway at Panjinadka near Atikaribettu in Kilpadi panchayat limits in Mulki. Thereafter, the villagers also expressed their ire towards the contractors involved in the pipeline project at the spot.
In order to oppose the project, the villagers held a meeting at Shimantoor Adi Janardhan temple premises under the leadership of Kalathoor Janajagruti Samiti on Tuesday morning and arrived at the scene of project works following the decision to oppose the project.
Speaking on behalf of the villagers, B Deviprasad Shetty from Janajagruti Samiti said that the contractors were oppressing the villagers and land owners by operating on the project without obtaining their permission. No requisite survey was created or appropriate relief was defined, he said, demanding that work should begin after solving all the problems of the villagers.
A clash of words ensued between the villagers and contractor Harish Puthran.
An agriculturist argued that the contractor had begun work on a major portion of his land without any compensation, deeming it unusable for farming. The contractor also does not have a proper map of the land and when asked, he tries to suppress the land owner, he alleged.
Locals such as Dhananjay Kotian Mattu, Kishore Shetty, Janajagruti Samiti convenor Lawrence Fernandes, Chittaranjan Bhandary, Shankara Shetty, Muralidhar Bhandary and several others protested against the pipeline installation. They tried to gherao the spot of ongoing work to halt the project.
When the situation almost reached the boiling point, police inspector Ramachandra Nayak intervened to pacify the villagers and prevent them from causing harm to the contractor. Police personnel tried to mediate talks between the two sides and brought the situation under control to a certain extent.
As per the demand of the villagers, he said that the project should be initiated after conducting talks with the MP and other elected representatives in the presence of the deputy commissioner. Without permit, work should not be undertaken on private land belonging to land owners, he said, directing the contractor to set up fencing for private land where work on the pipeline project had already begun.
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