Kerala - Pathanamthitta   

Life moves under a canopy of arches

— Photo: Leju Kamal

Safety threat: A massive arch under construction on the Thiruvalla-Kozhencherry State Highway at the Nellad junction, near Eraviperoor, on Monday.

PATHANAMTHITTA: Decorative arches across State highways and village roads have been posing a danger in the district. These put to hardship pedestrians and motorists and cause accidents at times.

To a request from Mar Thoma Evangelistic Association, which organises the Maramon Convention, not to permit any arches across the roads in and around Maramon, the Public Works Department has clarified that it has stopped granting permission after the State Human Rights Commission banned arches on roads a year ago.

The association made the request in the presence of Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran at a meeting at Maramon on Monday.

However, a few massive arches were being erected on the Thiruvalla-Kozhencherry State Highway on Monday, besides six others already up across the road.

Asked if these had the ‘silent consent’ of the official machinery, PWD officials expressed ‘helplessness’ in countering the political and communal strength of those who put them up.

V.N. Gopinatha Pillai, social worker and general secretary, Manimalayar Protection Committee, has called upon the authorities to take immediate steps to unauthorised arches.

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