Three months after a reply from the Prime Minister to her letter seeking repair of a road in her village, 8th standard student Shravya C.S. saw action only a few days ago with officials visiting to ascertain the condition of the road. “It’s a positive sign. I hope work will be taken up soon and our misery will end,” she said.
The frequent breakdown of private buses on the five-km-long stretch between Devasya and Chelyadka villages of the road connecting Puttur Town and Perla, Kerala, that prompted Shravya, a resident of Olamogaru village near Puttur, to write to the Prime Minister.
“My schoolmates and I have been turning up late to school owing to the bumpy road. On many occasions, we missed the first period,” said Shravya, a student of St. Victor’s Girls Secondary School in Puttur. It takes nearly an hour by bus from her village to the school, which is 8 km away. It takes the bus 30 minutes to cover the 5-km bumpy stretch.
Writing the letter in Hindi, Shravya had said that the condition of the road had remained the same for over several decades. Officials and public representatives had only assured of improvement but no action had been taken.
The Prime Minister’s Office forwarded Shravya’s letter to the Karnataka Chief Secretary, who in turn sent it to Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner K.G. Jagadeesha. Shravya’s father Suvarna R.B., a cashier in an Agriculture Cooperative Credit Bank, said a few engineers from the zilla panchayat visited the place some days ago. “We fought a lot for this road . I hope now the condition changes,” he said.
