KARWAR:It’s not uncommon that youths in many remote villages of Uttara Kannada district and other Malnad areas don’t find matches easily for different reasons. But in Medini village, popular for its fragrant ‘Medini rice’ like Basmati, those in the marriageable age, especially the girls, are not getting proposals from other villages due to a peculiar problem — the bad condition of the only approach road.
The small hamlet comprising 53 houses and a population of 400, is located about 38 km from the taluk headquarters Kumta and falls near the Siddapur taluk border. To reach here, one has to walk 8 km along a mud road which runs partly through a forest. During rainy season, it becomes all the more dangerous. Half the stretch of the road passes through the Western Ghat and it can be dangerous to take vehicles. The hamlet is famous for its variety of rice which is used to make sweets like payasam. The rice cost `100-120 per kg. But there is not much of a market for it due to lack of transportation.
People from other villages decline marriage proposals from here as they consider the 8-km stretch of road dangerous.Shivaram Gowda, a villager, said that except for a Government Lower Primary School and power supply in summer, no other facility has been provided to the village. “In the rainy season, power supply stops when falling branches damage power cables. The villagers have to send their children to stay with relatives in other villages so that they can attend higher primary and high school,” he said.
Rama Mundalli, a homoeopathic doctor who often visits Medini, said the villagers are dependent on agriculture and forest byproducts. Before every election, elected representatives promise to build roads but then forget. During the rainy season, only the younger lot go to towns and other villages as it is risky to use the road,he added.