NELLORE: For at least 150 children, residing at Irrukam island in Tirupati, crossing Pulicat Lake with the help of rickety countrymade boats to reach their schools at Arambakam in Tamil Nadu, is no less than a daily ritual. The students risk their lives as they use these unsafe boats for their daily commute, which can flip anytime.
On August 11, the return journey from school took an unexpected turn when one of the boats got ensnared in a fishing net, leaving the students stranded in the middle of the lake. With no communication devices available, the boatman couldn’t alert anyone on the island about the situation.
Even as the boat failed to arrive at the island on time, the parents of the students went into a panic mode. The worried villagers took out on their own boats in search of their children.
Irrukam island, which is located in the middle of Pulicat Lake, is around 14 km away from Bheemunivaripalem on the Chennai-Kolkata highway. With 2,500 people residing in Irrukam, the island lacks road connectivity.
Moreover, they have to undertake a gruelling one-and-a-half-hour journey in order to reach the coast. In fact, students take a boat ride to Bheemunivaripalem and further commute either by bus or autorickshaw to reach their school. Several students also travel to Sunnambugolam in Arambakam to pursue their studies in Tamil medium schools.
It may be recalled that the local fishermen community, who speak Tamil, are forced to send their children to Arambakam and other areas, as the island lacks Tamil medium schools. The then Nellore district collector MV Seshagiri Babu reached out to the education department and Samagra Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) officials to find a solution to the issue.
The SSA officials planned to appoint volunteers to teach Tamil in the local schools until alternative arrangements were made. However, those plans were never fruitful.
“It is risky to travel on boats as the lake swells during depressions and cyclones. There is no alternative means of transport for completing our daily tasks. Leaders of the fishermen’s community have appealed to the legislators for the construction of a flyover. But no action has been taken so far,” rued Kumar, a resident of the island. “Students have been facing a tough time to reach their schools. The State government must take measures for the construction of a flyover soon,” opined another villager, Armugam.