Pulppalli : Students in Mullankolli panchayat got stranded by riverside, unable to join school admission fest Monday. The disappointing episode occurred in Karnataka border village of Bairakuppa situated on the banks of river Kabani. Students there waited anxiously to be rowed over to the other side, so as to attend admission fest commemorating their first day at school. after a long gap thrust by the pandemic, and though Bairakuppa service boat reached the shores, authorities in Karnataka blocked restart of the service.
Students and guardians reached the boat point early 9 am. On other side of the river at Mullankolli panchayat, PTA and staff waited to receive them all at Perkaloor Thonikadavu school. On instructions of the district administration, boat was despatched to Bairakuppa jetty in time. However, police there blocked the resumption of service and students returned home disappointed.
Since decades, students and villagers of Bairakuppa rely on Mullankoli’s Pullpally for their needs. With onset of pandemic, the Karnataka government blocked all entry routes to the state except for highway and also made RT-PCR test mandatory. This is the circumstance that led to preventing students from sailing ashore. If authorities in Karnataka don;t modify rules, several students in Bairakuppa will remain cut-off from school.
