BANGALORE: Kannada Nudi-Kannada Gadi Jatha, a non-political and secular forum dedicated to social and cultural development of the border areas of the State, is all set to submit a comprehensive report to the Government highlighting the problems being faced by people living in villages on the State's borders.

Convener of the jatha `Mukhyamantri' Chandru, MLC, told presspersons here on Tuesday that the report would be submitted to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy at a convention of representatives of border areas to be held here on December 10.

The 19-member jatha, including Kannada Sahitya Parishat president Chandrashekar Patil and Sharana Sahitya Parishat president G.R. Channabasappa, toured the border districts for over 20 days and found that conditions in a majority of the 56 border taluks were abysmal.

Questionnaire

A detailed questionnaire had been prepared for obtaining data from the public and officials on various aspects such as road connectivity, medical facility, communication, schools, and so on.

Mr. Chandru said schools in a majority of the taluks were in a shambles owing to the Government's indifference. For instance, Hiriyur taluk in Chitradurga district, comprising 160 villages with an estimated population of 21,51,913 (according to the 2001 Census) had 14 private pre-primary schools, 303 government and 42 private primary schools, 22 government and 33 private high schools and eight government and four private pre-university colleges. In the 303 government primary schools 107 teacher posts were vacant.

In Virajpet taluk in Kodagu district, the number of vacant teacher posts was over 400. The general complaint in all the taluks was that there was a shortage of teaching staff and educational and cultural programmes specially conceived for the border villages were not being implemented, he said.

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