The Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu Road Action Committee staged a dharna at East Nadakkavu in the city on Wednesday condemning the increasing accident deaths on the Wayanad road as a result of the long-pending road-widening works.
Leaders of the committee alleged that the accident that claimed the life of C. Moideenkutty, a two-wheeler rider, at East Nadakkavu on Wednesday was the result of the apathy shown by politicians and government functionaries who cold-shouldered the road development plan.
Historian M.G.S. Narayanan, who inaugurated the protest, said it was quite unfortunate to note that the accident deaths increased in the area as a result of the pending road development work. In the current situation, one could only hope that such incidents would not happen again, he said.
Action committee leaders K.P. Vijayakumar and M.P. Vasudevan said it was purely luck that saved the lives of many of the pedestrians and motorists on the congested national highway. They said they were still clueless on who actually played villain to derail the road development project.
It was in the 2008-09 budget that the road-widening plan was announced by sanctioning₹52 crore. The project was notified after two years and the draft declaration came in 2013. Since then, the action committee, comprising the residents of the area, had been pleading for the completion of the work to reduce the accident rate on the route.
In a memorandum submitted to the government in 2014, the committee had also pointed out that 87 persons lost their lives in various accidents occurred on the 8.4-km stretch between 2011 and 2014. The number of the injured was then around 600, they had pointed out.
The Wednesday’s accident took place when a speeding private bus rammed the two-wheeler rider while he was coming back from a city hospital. The 56-year-old Perumanna resident died on the spot as he was trapped under the wheels of the bus after the collision. The bus driver and other crew fled from the spot afraid of public ire. Police said they registered a case against the driver for reckless driving.
