Kalaburagi District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA), which was supposed to review the implementation of the Union government’s welfare programmes and development projects, deviated from the agenda only to dwell on issues related to the State government that are normally discussed in Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) meetings.
As the meeting began with a 30-minute delay at the conference hall of the district administrative complex at 11.30 a.m. on Sunday, Kalaburagi Lok Sabha member Umesh Jadhav, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Kalaburagi DISHA committee chairman M. Mallikarjun Kharge, underlined the importance of the meeting and appealed to the members to focus on vital issues.
His appeal, however, went in vain within a few minutes as his son and Chincholi MLA Avinash Yadav raised the issue of noncooperation from Zilla Panchayat (ZP) officials in some matters related to his constituency.
Mr. Avinash Yadav said that Zilla Panchayat officials, despite his repeated requests, did not provide him with the certified copies of action plans and agreements that the Panchayat Raj Engineering Department had entered into with contractors to implement certain projects in his constituency.
With his father and BJP MLCs Sunil Vallyapure and B.G. Patil supporting Mr. Avinash Yadav and reprimanding the officials responsible, the meeting spent much of its time discussing the matter highlighting the pathetic condition of elected representatives against the disobedient bureaucrats who refused to respect the pleas from elected representatives.
Mr. Avinash Yadav, who appeared to be desperate in getting the desired documents, persisted that the information he sought be provided to him in the meeting itself. He even interrupted the meeting time and again to demand for information. Deputy Commissioner Fouzia Taranum finally directed the officer concerned to leave the meeting and bring the documents within a couple of hours.
Before the issue was settled, Mr. Vallyapure raised the issue of police incompetence in maintaining the law and order in the district. He specifically mentioned the incident of the recent desecration of an Ambedkar statue in Kalaburagi and the protests that erupted in and around Kalaburagi.
No police officer was present as the DISHA meeting agenda apparently did not warrant the presence of representatives of the Police Department. Upon Mr. Vallyapure’s persistent demand, two IPS officers, Superintendent of Police Addur Srinivasulu and Deputy Commissioner of Police Kanika Sikriwal, were summoned to the meeting to give explanation.
Since the explanation given by the police officers did not satisfy Mr. Vallyapure, a blame game consumed further time of the meeting.
Kalaburagi Rural BJP MLA Basavaraj Mattimadu intervened to add police failure to the discussion by stating that thieves are stealing cattle from farm sheds and valuables from merchants in his constituency. The discussion on police failure thus went on for some more time.
Mr. Mattimadu also raised the issue of pending bills payable to contractors who have finished development projects in his constituency and submitted all relevant documents. He appeared to be satisfied when Ms. Taranum assured him of making payments soon.
Mr. Mattimadu raised one more issue of him not being escorted by police personnel to public programmes even after prior intimation to the Police Department. He said that the police escorted former MLAs belonging to the Congress but did not escort sitting MLAs belonging to the BJP.
It was then the turn of Congress MLC Tippannappa Kamaknur to raise an issue that should have been raised at a Karnataka Development Programme meeting or at a Municipal Corporation meeting.
He pointed out to the pathetic condition of public toilets in the State-owned Aiwan-e-Shahi guesthouse and asked the Public Works Department, which maintained the guesthouse, for answers. The meeting again dwelled on it by summoning Executive Engineer of Public Works Subhash to give an explanation to the problem raised. Discussions went on till directions were given to the officers concerned to get the toilets cleaned.
When these topics, which were not on the agenda, were raised, all the officials, including the Deputy Commissioner, remained silent spectators.
Meanwhile, Mr. Vallyapure, Mr. Mattimud and Mr. Kamaknur left the meeting venue even before the actual agenda points of the meeting were taken up for review.
Mr. Kamaknur, before leaving the meeting venue, raised the issue of delayed implementation of a bridge over the Kagina near Shahabad, the stretch that he often uses.
He said that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has been constructing a bridge across the river for the last five years without making proper alternative arrangements for vehicular movement.
“People are suffering from the poor alternative passage provided. Pregnant women are afraid of using the mud road. Many have already died in the stretch because of the poor alternative passage. I don’t have a problem even if you take another five years to construct the bridge but you must provide a good alternative passage for traffic movement,” he said.
The officers concerned assured the meeting of throwing open the new bridge for public use in two months.
