BIDAR: What are the basic amenities that a Government can possibly give a village? Drinking water, electricity, healthcare, roads, drains, bus service, telephones and avenues for livelihood. However, there is a village in Bidar without any of these.

Welcome to Khudanpur in Bhalki taluk, which seems like a relic in the age of super highways. This village was in news recently after one of the villagers consumed poison and ended his life owing to debt.

Road or pathway?

The village is around 30 km from Bhalki. The approach road to the village branches off from Bhalki-Basava Kalyan Road at Khudanpur Cross. The two-km approach road has never been laid. It is a pathway among the bushes created by barefoot villagers who have walked on it for decades. No vehicle can move over it. And since it is a winding road on a hilly surface, one needs at least two hours to walk to the village. No road has ever been laid inside the village. People have never heard of drains laid by Government.

They have not seen a bus come to the village. For drinking water, most of them depend on the stream that flows by the village in the monsoon. During summer, they turn to the two public wells dug during the Nizam's regime.

Basamma Ningamma, a 60-year-old farm woman said finding a bride for her son was difficult as people were reluctant to marry off their daughters to residents of this village, owing to the water scarcity.

A power line was drawn from Basava Kalyan Road to the village in 2004. Villagers say the line worked well only for one year. "After that it stopped working," says Sangappa Biradar, a farmer who uses bullocks to draw water from the well.

No telephones

There are no telephones in the village. People walk to a hotel on Basava Kalyan Road to make and receive calls. One local call costs Rs. 5 here. But no one is complaining as this is the only communication facility available.

There is no hospital here and people dying of snake-bite is a regular phenomenon. An old Banjara woman doubles as a midwife and a native medicine expert.

There is no Panchayat office in the village. People have to travel to Bhalki for all government-related work. They have to spend Rs. 20 to travel to the taluk headquarter for getting documents such as caste and income certificates and land record copies, said Sangram Zareppa.

Primary school

The only luxury in the village is a primary school. Students said the mid-day meal was regular though the teachers were not.

A visit to the village leaves only one question on everyone's mind. How do its 2,000 residents tolerate such indifference of the Government?

Agriculture Minister and district in-charge Bandeppa Kashempur said he would take up works in the village under the Centrally-funded Rashtriya Sama Vikas Yojane or any other welfare scheme of the State Government.

The village is part of Hulsoor Assembly constituency. Its MLA Rajendra Verma said he understood the problems of the village when he visited the deceased farmer's family last week.

"I am committed to the all-round development of the village," he said.

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