Lack of proper roads and elephant menace were some of the issues that the local people raised, when a delegation of legislators from Tumakuru, Chikkballapur and Kolar districts visited Sakleshpur taluk on Saturday to review the ongoing work on the Yettinahole Integrated Drinking Project.
As soon as the delegation arrived at Gurjenahalli, the residents complained to them that development work in the region had only intensified the elephant menace. Wild elephants had killed more than 50 people in the last few years and damaged crops worth several crores. Whenever we raised this issue with the officials of Forest Department, they used to state that we had encroached upon the elephants’ domain and therefore, we had to forbear the consequences, the residents alleged. Stating that they had appealed to the State government to put a fencing measuring eight 8 kilometres to stop elephants from treading into human habitats, they said the proposal had not been accepted by the Forest Department.
K.R. Ramesh Kumar, Srinivaspura MLA, said that the officials should respond to people’s woes seriously. If required, they should go beyond the rules to help the people, he said.
Plastic pitchers
The delegation had to respond to another issue, when a group of people came in their way with empty plastic pitchers to symbolically express their water scarcity-related problem. Malnad Mehaboob, resident of Sakleshpur, said that while Western Ghats had been the source of water for many places, several localities in Sakleshpur were deprived of basic amenities, including drinking water. They accused the legislators of coming all the way to Sakleshpur to ensure that water from there was carried to distant places but not paying attention to their (people’s) problems.
Memorandum
The protesters submitted a memorandum to the delegation, demanding better roads and proper drinking water supply in Sakleshpur. Mr. Kumar said the delegation was aware of the problems of local public.
“We will put pressure on the State government to provide funds for development work in Sakleshpur taluk. The government has already sanctioned Rs. 30 crore for improving roads,” he said.
The delegation, consisting of MLAs and MLCs from three districts, inspected the project work.
