Public demands urgent reconstruction of Kiran Road

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 February 2003, 15:28 GMT]
The road connecting Kiran in Batticaloa district to the Pulipainthakal to the west has become non-motorable and so badly dilapidated that even bicycles cannot be used on the road, the residents of the area said, and demanded that the government should take immediate steps to reconstruct the road.

The road goes through Tharavai, Pulipainthakal all the way to Vadamunai. Hundreds of acres of lands in Tharavai, Pulipainthakal, Pendukalsenai, Koraveli, Meeyankulam and Muruthanai, all to the west of Kiran, are being cultivated in this paddy-growing season, and a large number of people have to travel on the road, often with tractors. But travel on this road is impossible, and often fraught with danger.

As this road was in an area controlled by the LTTE, there has been no maintenance work for a long time. The road was further damaged during floods last December. During the floods, a technical employee of the Department of Buildings traveling on the road drowned in the floods and died. Many others who drowned escaped miraculously. On Tuesday, a bullock cart carrying many people on the road turned upside down, and Mr. Kandiah Sivalingam (49) was badly injured.

Kiran –Pulipainthakal road

Mr. K. Sinnarajah (46), a farmer who uses the road often, said, “The road is not suitable for travel and there have been frequent accidents. As a result, people are undergoing severe hardships.”

He said that he has been cultivating paddy fields in the area for several years, and he has seen no maintenance or repairs of the road. “Occasionally, someone might fill a few potholes with stones and pour tar and call it repaired, but there has never been any systematic repair or maintenance. When the rainy season comes, the road becomes badly damaged,” he said.

“ Though in the past, the government neglected the area as it was under the control of the LTTE. But in the current environment of relative peace, when reconstruction work is being carried out in the North-East, the government should start the reconstruction of the road immediately, and the LTTE should cooperate in the interests of the thousands of people who live west of Kiran,” Mr. Sinnarajah stressed.