Mangaluru: Judge takes authorities to task for 'forcing' kids to repair road

Mangaluru: A day after The Hans India published a story about two school children clearing mud on a slushy road, Sullia senior civil court judge Somashekar on Tuesday inspected the road connecting Bellare with Mudayi Thota and warned of legal action against the Bellare gram panchayat authorities if they failed to repair it immediately.

The judge inspected the road which was full of slush after the photo showing two children removing the mud on road went viral on social media. It has drawn attention of lakhs of netizens and evoked widespread condemnation for the apathy of the authorities.

After a gap of two and a half years, students of Classes I to V went to school on Monday. Two class II students of the Mandepu government primary school, Vallisha Rama and Tanvi, were labourng to drain out the muddy water.

The judge who he checked the road along with the public prosecutor and Bellare sub-inspector, took parents, school teachers and Bellare GP president, panchayat officer and members to task and ordered police to book a case against them for making children work. The parents of the children said that it's a private road belonging to them.

The GP authorities apologized for the incident and repaired the road immediately.