LDF to begin hunger strike from Saturday as NHAI fails to begin road repairs

In protest against the failure in fulfilling the promise given by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to begin repairs in the pothole-filled corridor of NH 544 at Muringoor from Thursday night, the Left Democratic Front, led by local body leaders of Melur, Kadukutty and Koratty panchayats, has threatened to launch an indefinite hunger strike at Muringoor from Saturday.

Addressing mediapersons, the local body leaders on Friday said the obduracy of the NHAI authorities was a direct challenge to the people. “Right from beginning of the work, they never kept their promises. They still continue to fool the people. The construction works have been conducted unscientifically without planning. If they fail to start work tonight too, we will begin the strike from Saturday morning,” they said.

On Thursday evening, Chalakudy witnessed high drama as local body representatives, led by panchayat presidents, locked NHAI site engineer A. Amal in a room at the PWD rest house for nearly two hours, protesting against the severe traffic congestion on National Highway 544.

The protest erupted after project director Ansil Hasan, who had earlier promised to attend a meeting, failed to turn up.

The protesters declared that the engineer would not be released unless immediate measures were announced to ease the travel woes. At one point, tempers flared when the police attempted to force open the locked door, sparking a scuffle with LDF leaders, who staged a sit-in outside the room.

As the stand-off escalated, more elected representatives and LDF leaders joined the protest, while additional personnel were rushed to the site. Following tense negotiations, the police were allowed to send the DySP inside for talks.

The site engineer initially insisted that tarring could not begin immediately due to the lack of a nearby plant, but after consulting senior NHAI officials over the phone he assured that tarring at Muringoor, the worst-hit stretch, would begin the same night.

He also conveyed the project director’s assurance that all urgent issues would be addressed and that he himself would visit the site and hold a meeting with the representatives the following day.

Only after this assurance did the protesters agreed to release the engineer.

Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court constituted an interim traffic management committee comprising the Collector, District Police Chief, and the RTO to address the worsening congestion in the Mannuthy–Edappally corridor of NH 544.