MLA Prabhu Chouhan walked out of a review meeting in the Bidar zilla panchayat on Thursday, after he felt his views were not being taken seriously.
At a meeting attended by Ministers H.K. Patil, Sharan Prakash Patil and Eshwar Khandre, Mr. Chouhan complained that Aurad taluk that he represents was being neglected. It is counted among the most backward taluks in the State according to the Dr. Nanjundappa committee. It has bad roads, there are only a few schools, colleges or hospitals and other development indicators are low, he said. He complained that few government offices were in their own building and that there were virtually no industries. Public investment in other areas was very less, he said.
He alleged that the State government had not released any crop loss relief to farmers though the taluk had suffered a three-year drought and one year of heavy rain. “We have not got even one paisa. Neither have crop losing farmers got money, nor have officials got money to repair damaged infrastructure. All the funds seem to be channeled to Bhalki,” he complained. Mr. Khandre, the Minister, is the MLA from Bhalki.
Mr. Chouhan complained that the government had not bothered to repair the Bidar- Nanded road that had “knee-deep potholes.” The taluk continually suffers from water scarcity, but no effort has been made to provide permanent solutions to address this problem, he said and urged Mr. H.K. Patil to visit Aurad.
At one point, Mr. Sharan Prakash Patil asked the MLA not to politicise the issue or trivialise the discussion. “Don’t make funny statements. Be serious,” the Medical Education Minister said. This angered Mr. Chouhan who rushed to the Minister’s table and started arguing loudly. He even sat on the ground in front of the table asking the Minister to withdraw his statement. Efforts by Mr Khandre to calm him down did not succeed. Mr Chauhan walked out of the meeting. He told presspersons later that he was disappointed with the way the ZP was functioning.
