The personnel of the Maratha Regiment conducted a search operation using radar on Monday for a lorry under the mud at the place where the hill collapsed in Shirur of Ankola taluk.
Credit: DH Photo
Congress lawmaker Satish Sail on Monday alleged that indifference and negligence of the national highways authority of India (NHAI) and the IRB company in adopting safety measures while widening the national highway led to the disaster at Shirur.
“The Geological Survey of India in its report had mentioned that 34 sites, including the site in question, are vulnerable to landslides. But the NHAI and the IRB, the company which executed widening works, didn’t bother to adopt safety measures. The executing agency cut the hill vertically at a 90-degree angle. This apart, it did not construct a protection wall using stone slabs. All these lapses resulted in a devastating landslide,” Sail told reporters here.
The Congress legislator said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah immediately responded to his plea to inspect the search/rescue operation at the site. The CM has assured a grant of Rs 20 crore to build a sea wall to protect the coastal areas from erosion in Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada districts, he added.
Not in the Radar
Meanwhile, no survivor or vehicle was found under the debris at Shirur even as the rescue/search operations entered the seventh day on Monday. The rescue teams, including personnel from Indian Army and Navy, shifted their operations to the Gangavali river to trace three to four missing people and a truck. The Maratha Light Infantry personnel are scanning for the missing persons with specialised tools like ground penetration radars and deep search metal detector which can detect metal buried as deep as 10 metres in the debris.
Truck drivers protest
Truck drivers, who are stranded at the landslide-hit after the blockage of the NH 66 since July 16, are running out of patience. The truck drivers on Monday gehraoed Karwar MLA Satish Sail demanding that they be allowed to move. One side of the road has been partially cleared but authorities have not yet permitted the drivers to
proceed.