Mahalinga Naik felicitated

The Dakshina Kannada district administration on Wednesday felicitated Mahalinga Naik from Amai village in Bantwal taluk who has been chosen for the Padma Shri Award 2022 during the Republic Day celebr

The Dakshina Kannada district administration on Wednesday felicitated Mahalinga Naik from Amai village in Bantwal taluk who has been chosen for the Padma Shri Award 2022 during the Republic Day celebrations.

District in-charge Minister V. Sunil Kumar felicitated Mr. Naik in the presence of people’s representatives and other dignitaries. He said that people like Mr. Naik and Harekala Hajabba, who was conferred the award last year, brought name to the district and the State and appreciated their hard work in achieving their goals.

Working as an agriculture labour plucking arecanuts and coconuts in and around Adyanadka, Mr. Naik, now 77, was gifted a two-acre barren land by landlord Amai Mahabala Bhat in 1978. With no water in the vicinity, he began searching for it and realised that digging an open well was not possible for him. Instead, he resorted to the age-old tradition of the region of digging horizontal tunnels into hillocks to get water and in fact, ensured sufficient water supply after he completed digging the seventh tunnel.