Is A Road A Human Right?

Retired public servant approaches NHRC for relief after a futile four-year battle 

- A.D. Rangarajan

At a time when one daily hears of hundreds of kilometres of highways being laid all over the country, a retired public servant in Tirupati has been waging a grim battle for nearly four years to get the state to lay a pucca road over a 500 metre-stretch that leads to his house.

Bandla Raja Reddy (64) retired from the Indian Railway Traffic Service in 2014. Post-retirement, he has been living in Tirupati's Nalanda Nagar, on the city's outskirts. Since his house is located 500 metres from the last building on his street, the local municipal body perhaps found it `uneconomical' to lay a pucca road on this stretch.