The Hindu : National : Mundane issues matter here

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 11, 2004

National

National

Mundane issues matter here

By Arunkumar Bhatt

DHULE (NORTH MAHARASHTRA), OCT. 10 . Malnutrition deaths of tribal children in Maharashtra may have caught the national attention and provided ammunition to the Opposition guns, but it is a distant calamity for Dhule district though Nandurbar district, a scene of the tragedy, is adjacent.

It is not an issue in the October 13 polls even for the BJP-Shiv Sena, which issued special advertisements on it.

The Sena nominee, Dr. Subhash Bhamre, a cancer surgeon, knows the reasons behind the deaths and the shortcomings of the Government public health centres but feels it is not a point to harp on to garner votes.

Water problem

He told The Hindu that the drinking water problem was the major local issue. "We have enough storage capacity but not good water filtration plants. We need roads and a hygienic sewerage system besides public toilets."

Telgi scam

The multi-crore stamp paper scam involving Abdul Kareem Telgi does not stir the people though the only Maharashtra legislator, Anil Gote, arrested represents Dhule in the outgoing Assembly. He is the only candidate in the State who is contesting from jail.

This time, he is contesting from the neighbouring Kusumba where he takes on the Congress stalwart, Rohidas Patil. But he has fielded his wife and Dhule Municipal Councilor, Hematai Gote, in Dhule.

The Congress-NCP steers clear of the Telgi scam as the former Deputy Chief Minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, now contesting from Yevala in adjacent Nashik district, was questioned by the Special Investigation Team and number of top police officers appointed by Mr. Bhujbal are now in jail. "Telgi is not a big issue," says the district Congress president, Sevalal Bafna.

The Sena is embarrassed as a memorial built by Gote's Kisan Trust bearing Telgi's name as a trustee was inaugurated by its leader and then Chief Minister, Narayan Rane, in July 1999.

The NCP candidate, Mr. Kadambande, thinks that civic amenities such as roads and water are the local issues and "the need to combat and defeat the communal forces such as the Shiv Sena and the BJP" is a State issue. "The malnutrition deaths did not take place in the town but in the tribal areas; people here know that if the Sena captures power, it would impose octroi duty and double the civic taxes that we had fought against earlier," he says.

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