Karnataka - Hassan   

Srirampura back to normal

S. Shama Sunder

As soon as the Chief Minister left, the power supply went off too

HASSAN: Not many people had heard of Srirampura in Hassan district till Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy decided to spend a night there.

In preparation for his visit, the district administration transformed the village overnight with tarred roads and drains. All the houses were whitewashed and the primary school building got a facelift. Electricity poles were erected and streetlights were provided. Two borewells were drilled and fitted with water pumps.

Mr. Kumaraswamy, accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa arrived at the village at 9 p.m. on Sunday. The Chief Minister spent 15 hours in the village, but the residents, who belong to the Sudugadu Sidda tribe, did not get a chance to speak to him since thousands of people from surrounding villages and from neighbouring Mandya and Mysore districts thronged the village.

Even at the Janata Darshan on Monday, which lasted over three hours, over 2,000 people from surrounding villages submitted petitions to the Chief Minister. The people of Srirampura did not get a chance to approach the Chief Minister at the Janata Darshan either. All they wanted was to ask Mr. Kumaraswamy for a playground for their children and a community hall for social functions.

Even when the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister arrived at the residence of Venkatesh for dinner on Sunday, the police kept the people of the village at a distance.

Cooks from Mysore

Though Mr. Venkatesh claimed that the food for Mr. Kumaraswamy and Mr. Yediyurappa was prepared in his house, the menu was the same for officials and journalists who were camping in the village. The food was prepared by cooks brought from Mysore.

Soon after the Chief Minister left the village on Monday afternoon, the lights, which had burned uninterruptedly for the duration of the Chief Minister's visit, went out. All the additional lights that had been put up were removed. There was no power supply in the village till Tuesday morning. Life in Srirampura is back to normal now.

The only consolation for the people of Srirampura is that the Chief Minister chose their village for his 25th `grama vatsavya'.

The district administration spent a whopping Rs. 2 crore to spruce up the village for the visit by Mr. Kumaraswamy and Mr. Yediyurappa.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Srirampura back to normal
Attack on doctor over woman's death condemned

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu