Udupi : A protest held by Highway sufferers’ forum ( HSV) did not succeed as a group of Auto-rikskaw drivers did not support the demand of having a by pass to the main road. The central Govt. transport minister Oscar Fernandes had stated in Udupi some time ago that creating a by-pass to the main road at Padubidri was left to the state Govt. and the state Govt., in turn, decided upon a four lane High way rather than having a by-pass. This angered forum members who were agitating to have a by-pass.

The protesters were joined by some tempo drivers and Taxi drivers of Padubidre town some Auto drivers outside the town on Karkala road and Kelagina Pete declined to support them.

The Auto drivers gathered at the Auto stand went to the police station to complain that they were abused and shouted at by the protesters of the rally in the town. The police inspector Ajmath called the Auto drivers who had parked their vehicles in front of the police station for discussions in a bid to reconcile the situation before it went out of hand.

Then, the protesters who were near the taxi stand in the town came to the police station and apologised to the unhappy Auto drivers for the harsh words used against them. Thus the protesters and Auto -rikshaw drivers were reconciled at the police station.

Presently, the state Govt. has decided to drop the issue of having a by-pass near Padubidri and to get on with four -laning and widening the national Highway from Mangalore to Udupi at Padubidri.

About 150 members of the Vedike were in the protest rally which marched to the office of the GP president Vijay M Amin and presented a memorandum to Udupi II tahsildar Gururaj. The tahasildar inturn, promised to forward their memorandum to the DC at Udupi.

Dr Y N Shetty, Dr N T Anchan, Y Gopal Shetty and others of the vedike were present on the occasion.