The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘People still come to me for a solution’

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Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘People still come to me for a solution’

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: The former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Tuesday said that some people who could not redress their grievances at the “Janata Darshans” being held by Governor Rameshwar Thakur turned up at his residence with the hope of finding a solution to their problems.

Participating in a convention of the Banjara community organised in Bangalore, Mr. Kumaraswamy said he was surprised and moved to see people visiting him after attending the Governor’s Janata Darshan.

“When I tell them that I am no longer the Chief Minister, they say that officials sent them to me because it is not possible for them to redress their grievances,” he said.

Citing an instance, he said recently a woman belonging to Bovi community (Dalit) from Chitradurga was waiting at his residence from 6 a.m. along with her three daughters.

She told him that she was a victim of a gang rape and did not have her husband’s support.

She told Mr. Kumaraswamy that she had met him as Chief Minister with a request to get her a job.

As per his direction, she had been given a job at a government hospital in Chitradurga.

She was getting Rs 1,000 a month and had been transferred to Challakere.

As it was difficult for her to leave her house in Chitradurga to make a living elsewhere on this paltry earning, she wanted her transfer to be cancelled.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said he requested the Chitradurga Deputy Commissioner over telephone to either cancel her transfer or allot an Ashraya house in Challakere.

The Deputy Commissioner obliged and increased her salary to Rs 2,500, he said.

She told him that she had raised Rs. 500 by pledging her golden ear-stud with a money-lender to meet the expenses of camping in Bangalore to meet him and she was now left with only Rs. 12. Mr. Kumaraswamy said he paid her money to travel back to Chitradurga and to get her ear-stud released.

He said the purpose of narrating this incident was not to gain mileage but to draw public attention to the nature of problems of poor people. There was a dire need to create a ray of hope for such people, he said.

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