Karnataka   

Village that has fallen off the map

GREG CHAPPELL

Chondi Mukhed knows what it means to fall off the map, not only because it is the only village of Karnataka that is surrounded by Maharashtra, but also because no development reaches it.

This village in Aurad taluk is considered by the D.M. Nanjundappa Committee report on regional imbalances as one of the most backward in the State.

It has a "money order" economy.

The village residents — those who are left behind as most of the young people have left for Mumbai and Hyderabad in search of jobs — look forward to the arrival of Yashwanth, the postman, who brings in their money orders in the first week of every month. Posted at Nandi Bijalgaon, which is nearly 7 km away, Yashwanth bicycles over 14 km every day to reach Chondi Mukhed, drop and collect the mail, and return.

Chondi Mukhed is 58 km from the taluk headquarters of Aurad. It is 24 km from the gram panchayat office in Chikali (U) where the residents must go to get certificates of caste, income or proof of residence, and to pay taxes. There are no proper approach roads to the village, and within it roads have not been asphalted for a decade now, village residents say. There is no piped water supply — all it has is a tank filled by a borewell, with a tap. Electricity comes from the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) and its supply gets disrupted frequently.

"MSEB officials tell us it is because the Karnataka Government frequently defaults on payments," Rama Rao, a village resident, says.

There is a Marathi medium government primary school in the village run by the Karnataka Government. It has not had a Kannada teacher for three years and nor an English and physical education teacher for over two years. The primary school has 300 students although the nearest high school is 10 km away.

Students suffer a curious problem. If they finish their studies in high schools or colleges in Maharashtra, they don't get jobs in Karnataka. And if they study in Marathi medium, it is hard to find a government job in Maharashtra as they are domiciled in Karnataka. Only one person from the village, Marutirao Nivratirao Biradar, has got a government job since Independence. "That is an index of how much we have developed, says Shivaji Bhalerao," an elderly farmer.

Reports that Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy plans to spend a night here in the last week of February have brought it fleeting fame. Will that change life for the people of Chondi Mukhed?

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai in Bidar

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