MANGALORE: Political parties have begun campaigning for the forthcoming elections to the zilla and taluk panchayat in December. They have started taking a hard look at the issues that might have a telling effect on their performance in the elections.

Dakshina Kannada is a district where rural areas are becoming increasingly urbanised. People have started demanding that more urban facilities be provided in rural areas, which the government may not be able to provide. The district might have a record of taking the public water system to each of its 422 villages as early as 1998, when Sanjiva Shetty was the Zilla Panchayat President. The successive president Balakrishna Borkar made efforts to take electricity to all villages but that could not be realised owing to paucity of funds. People in rural areas, particularly the youth, have started setting up cable TV network, cyber cafes, eateries and other enterprises with the help of micro-credit options available to them.

Is the government going to be able to provide the basic facilities and infrastructure that these young people are demanding? Many politicians who are aspiring to get into the zilla panchayat for the five-year term have no answer to this question.

Naxal issue

The second issue that is on the minds of the parties is the naxalite menace. All parties including the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Samajwadi Party are being cautious about the issue, particularly in the hilly areas of the district in the three taluks of Belthangady, Puttur and Sullia. According to the Additional Superintendent of Police Dakshina Kannada B.S. Lokesh Kumar, the menace of naxalism did not figure on the agenda of political party in the district earlier. However, police making security arrangement for the elections in those areas. However, the signals from some naxalite-affected areas in Dakshina Kannada mainly in Kuthloor in Naravi constituency appear point to a naxalite campaign against the elections. The Karnataka Vimochana Ranga which is stated to be following naxalite ideologies is active in Kuthloor says president of Nagarika Seva Trust, an NGO working in these areas. The main problems in tribal areas are issues pertaining to the livelihood of tribal people and the collection forest waste, which has been obstructed by the Government under the Wildlife Act.

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