Hunsur-Gonikoppal Road: Online campaign picks up momentum
An online petition seeking urgent action to repair the Hunsur-Gonikoppal Road bordering Mysore and Kodagu districts has been submitted to the Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly K.G. Bopaiah.
The petition signed by 132 members has been mailed to the Speaker and also the Kodagu district in-charge minister Appachu Ranjan who have been elected as MLAs from Kodagu.
Following widespread anger expressed by motorists travelling the 45-km Hunsur-Gonikoppal Road, Kodagu’s first news portal www.coorgtourisminfo.com, which has been highlighting Kodagu-centric issues in the past seven years, decided to launch the online signature campaign, according to the promoter of the portal P.T. Bopanna, senior journalist.
The campaign was registered with Petitions India, an online portal, where members of the public could register their online support. The campaign generated 164 ‘likes’ on Facebook.
The Hunsur-Gonikoppal road is dotted with craters and several stretches of the highway are not in a motorable condition.
The condition of the Anechaukur-Piriyapatna Road is no better. For the time-being, this stretch can be improved as motorists from Gonikoppal could take this road to Piriyapatna from where the road to Hunsur is in a better condition.
Since the road from Hunsur to Kodagu comes in the jurisdiction of the Hunsur and Piriyapatna MLAs, they do not seem to be bothered about the road which they seem to assume is being used by people going to Kodagu and Kerala.
Meanwhile, the Star of Mysore newspaper stated in its report dated August 9, 2012:
“It may be mentioned here that some coffee-growers of south Kodagu, exasperated with the bad condition of the road, had pooled in money and filled up some of the crater-like potholes with several truckloads of jelly stones about two years ago.
Among the donors were former President of the Federation of Kodava Samajas M.N. Belliappa, Umamaheshwari Petrol Bunk owner Kollira Umesh and Star of Mysore Editor-in-Chief K.B. Ganapathy.
However, had the government responded positively then, the contribution would have been significant. But due to the divine neglect on part of authorities concerned, the condition of the road went from bad to worse.
The PWD engineers, when contacted in this regard, say that the road will soon be converted into an inter-State highway and under this pretext, they avoid initiating any action for the road’s repair.
The fact is that the motorists who frequently use this road are the victims of dirty politics. While the Lok Sabha member for Kodagu-Mysore constituency represents Congress, the MLA for Virajpet constituency is from BJP — Speaker Bopaiah. This road also comes under the purview of Hunsur and Periyapatna MLAs — Chikkanna and Venkatesh respectively — both from Congress.
Meanwhile, both K.G. Bopaiah and Youth Services and Sports Minister M.P. Appachu Ranjan — who are keen to fulfill the demands of Kodagu people and get the road repaired — have assured that the road work will commence from November.
It may be recalled, when some Kodagu citizens launched a protest against the un-motorable condition of this road, police arrested them, booked cases and got them entangled in legal web. As a result no one is ready to participate in rasta roko as often happens on Mysore-Bangalore road. So our rulers are happy.
The government, instead of performing its duty of providing basic infrastructure, is harassing citizens by fixing cases through the police, in an attempt to bring down their morale. Is this democracy?”
