Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash faced the wrath of the people at Cheeyappara on Tuesday as they almost heckled him in order to draw his attention to the poor condition of National Highway 49 between Neryamangalam and Walara waterfalls.
“The road has been in an extremely dangerous condition for a long time now,” said one of the people, who raised his voice as the Minister was posing for photographs before a group of journalists who were reporting the landslip on Monday at Cheeyappara, where three people were killed.
The Minister kept his calm and listened patiently to the complaints. One person in the crowd who raised the issue also gave a piece of his mind to the reporters, who, he alleged were running after sensational news items while turning a blind eye to people’s real problems.
Babu Keecheri, member of the Adimali panchayat, said about 16 km of National Highway 49 between Kochi and Dhanushkodi is in poor shape and needed immediate attention.
Some places needed to be levelled, while other places required retaining walls and retainers to protect vehicles from falling off the road.
Varghese, a local resident, said the National Highways Authority of India was turning a blind eye to the condition of the road.
Mr. Babu said the national highways authorities were postponing work on this particular stretch of road citing objections from the Department of Forests.
