Bangalore: Vijayswami has spent the higher a part of the final decade attempting to get native authorities to construct a 6km street in his native village of Rekulgi in Bidar district of Karnataka. The absence of a street forces residents to take a 30-km detour to achieve Aurad, the taluk headquarters, the 60-year-old priest informed ThePrint.
“There was a street but it surely was washed away when the Karanja Dam overflowed just a few years in the past,” Vijayswami, a priest, informed ThePrint on Thursday.
“I’ve made a number of statements to the native authorities and even to the earlier MLA (former Bidar South legislator Ashok Kheny), however our drawback nonetheless persists.”
On Thursday, Vijayswami, who has no arms and has to open his demand letter together with his mouth, spent Rs 1,600 to journey 700 km to Bengaluru’s Vidhana Soudha, or the Karnataka Secretariat, hoping for an viewers with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
And he isn’t the one one who does that. With the overall elections across the nook, the Congress authorities appears to be leaving nothing to likelihood. She is going to maintain a “Janaspandana”, or folks’s court docket occasion – the second such occasion in six months – on the secretariat on Thursday.
Whereas the Prime Minister has been holding common public conferences for the reason that election of his authorities in Could final yr, this explicit Janaspandana was characterised by its measurement. Whereas most different gatherings have been held on the Prime Minister’s residence and usually lasted now not than two hours, this occasion lasted eight hours, beginning at 10am, and noticed hundreds in attendance.
In accordance with an announcement from the Chief Minister’s Workplace on Thursday night, there have been 20,000 folks, whereas the federal government acquired round 11,000 functions by the tip of it.
“Involved DCs will get rid of functions in a time-bound method. The district secretaries in cost have been directed to course of functions regarding their districts,” the assertion mentioned, including that officers have been directed to course of or resolve these points inside a month.
Like Vijayswami, a number of of the folks ThePrint spoke to mentioned they got here to Janaspandana after their requests have been ignored by their native administration. Additionally throughout the occasion, a number of folks complained about having to ‘run round’ to submit their functions.
In the meantime, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) requested the federal government to “concentrate” to governance points. Considerably, within the 2019 common elections, the BJP received 25 of the state’s 28 meeting seats, whereas the Congress may handle just one.
“Mr Siddaramaiah, do not pat your self on the again that many individuals have joined the Janaspandana,” mentioned BJP’s prolonged submit in Kannada. “Among the many individuals who gathered, nearly all of the individuals who gathered expressed their displeasure on the mismanagement of your authorities.”
“There is no such thing as a response – no respect for the folks within the public response”
CM partaking in political stunts within the identify of public response @siddaramaiah In accordance with him, the folks gathered reprimanded the federal government’s mismanagement.
“Not a cent has come from Grilahakshmi but, the invoice comes from the attic in Grihajyoti,… pic.twitter.com/kdFYUpIlFS
—BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) February 8, 2024
ThePrint reached the CMO by way of calls and textual content messages for touch upon the BJP’s allegations however had not acquired a response by the point of publication. This report might be up to date if and when a response is acquired.
Additionally learn: From atheist to agnostic to ‘believer’ – how Siddaramaiah’s religious journey got here full circle
‘Ignored’ requests ignored, ‘rampant’ corruption
At Thursday’s occasion, 42-year-old housewife Shabana was desperately searching for somebody to assist her write a memo to the prime minister. It has been virtually eight months since she and her aged relative, Nazia Begum, utilized for the Congress authorities’s money profit scheme ‘Gruha Laksmi’, however she has nonetheless not acquired any monetary help.
The ‘Gruha Laksmi’ scheme, introduced by the Congress authorities earlier than the Meeting elections final Could and launched in August, guarantees monetary help of Rs 2,000 to girls heads of low-income households.
“I duly utilized for the scheme when it was introduced and even acquired the popularity, however haven’t acquired any cash since. I hoped that assembly the CM would give us some aid.” Shabana informed ThePrint.
A number of folks on Thursday‘S occasion complained about rampant corruption inside authorities channels. Amongst them was Pattaraju, the son of a freedom fighter and a farmer from Channarayapatna in Hassan district, who traveled three hours earlier than the occasion to hunt compensation for 4 hectares of land he mentioned the federal government had taken.
“Once I went to the district administration, they requested me to search for an empty land. (In the meantime) the tehsildar has mentioned that he would look into the matter provided that I’ve Rs 2-3 lakh (as bribe). The place ought to I get this cash from? That is injustice and they’re giving us false assurances right here (throughout the occasion),” he informed ThePrint.
In an interview with NDTV Thursday, Karnataka’s Rural Improvement and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge mentioned CM Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar “really feel strongly that governance ought to be delivered at their (constituents’) doorsteps”.
“Within the final six months, the CM has (held) two Janaspandanas and each district-level minister has completed greater than three,” he mentioned.
Folks come to the occasion as a result of they consider that work might be completed quicker in the event that they deal with their requests on to the CM, Kharge mentioned. “It isn’t that departments should not working or that ministers should not working. We’re doing it on the district stage and on the taluk stage,” he mentioned.
“It’s simply the expectation of the those that they arrive to Vidhana Soudha and get their work completed. They suppose it’ll go quicker.”
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Additionally learn: BJP fires ‘senile’ barb at Siddaramaiah over ‘avalu vs avaru’ fake pas in reference to President Murmu
