Karnataka   

Strike by residents of Lakshmipur enters tenth day

Protest: Residents of Lakshmipur staging a rasta roko in Sandur on Tuesday.

SANDUR (BELLARY DISTRICT): Fed up with the air pollution caused by the movement of hundreds of trucks transporting iron ore, lack of basic civic amenities and false assurances given by mine owners and authorities to end their ordeal, the residents of Lakshmipur locality in Sandur town have blocked the Kumaraswamy-Sandur road.

The agitation entered the tenth day on Tuesday.

Parvathamma, a resident of Lakshmipur said, “Ever since there was a boom in iron ore mining in the international market, the transportation of iron ore went up ten times causing large-scale air pollution, leading to health hazards, especially for children and the aged. The early completion of the bypass road will solve many of our problems.”

Due to the strike, the movement of heavy vehicular traffic on the road has come to a standstill.

An estimated 15,000 tons of iron ore is transported from three mines and the stock yards every day.

The residents have been demanding early completion of the bypass, repair of the damaged roads, basic civic amenities and so on. Addressing presspersons on Tuesday, the residents took exception to the attitude of the authorities and the mine owners in passing the buck.

“We will continue the strike, come what may, until our demands are conceded, ” they said.

It may be mentioned here that in response to the long-pending demand of the residents of Sandur town, Lakshmipur and other localities, the authorities surveyed the area and identified and acquired the land for construction of the bypass.

As of now, except for a few stretches, preliminary work on the 14-km stretch has been completed.

However, for certain reasons, work is going on at a snail’s pace.

Raghav Reddy, Executive Engineer, PWD, told The Hindu that the contractor had stopped work for a couple of months for various reasons.

“The work has commenced now and he has given an assurance that it will be completed in December, provided the authorities solve the land problem in a few stretches. A final notification is likely to be issued soon and steps will be taken to get the work completed on schedule,” he said.

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