Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Where development is still a far cry

GULBARGA: Basic civic amenities are lacking in Savalgi B village, which is about 10 km from Gulbarga city, despite being the gram panchayat headquarters.

The gram panchayat is not doing its obligatory duties of providing drinking water and maintaining cleanliness in the village, according to a group of rural journalists who visited the village to study the working of the gram panchayat.

The visit was part of the three-day orientation camp on “Rural development and panchayati raj institutions”, organised jointly by the Karnataka Media Academy and the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department.

Speaking about the condition of the village on the concluding day of the camp, they said that even before the beginning of summer the village was facing severe shortage of drinking water and people had to walk at least two km to fetch water. The village does not have “pucca” roads and drainage facility. Waste water from houses was being let out on the streets. All borewells in the village had gone defunct owing to the fall in groundwater level, they said.

The piped water supply scheme had benefited only five houses in the village. Residents of other houses were dependent on public taps for water but the supply was irregular. Though gram sabhas should be convened by the panchayat at least once in two months, only two gram sabhas were held in this financial year, according to secretary of the gram panchayat Balbhim Kulkarni. However, residents of the village refuted this claim and said that no gram sabha was held.

Although the beneficiaries of Ashraya scheme have to be selected by the gram panchayat, the official admitted that the selection was done by two influential landlords of the village, the journalists said. Caste was said to be one of the basis for the selection. While the deserving poor continued to live in thatched huts, those who were allotted Ashraya houses had converted them into cowsheds and storehouses, they said.

The government primary and higher primary school and a private school did not have basic amenities for students. There was no separate toilet facility for girl students, they added.

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

Stories in this Section

Where development is still a far cry
Anganwadi workers seek retirement benefits

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu