Nothing smart about Davangere industrial hub

Once the Manchester of Karnataka, today Davangere is no longer an industrial hub it used to be as no political party has kept its poll promise of reviving its past heritage, and the formation of ‘textile cluster’ has remained only on paper. People in this region express their utter disappointment on the lack of industrial development in the last five years and say with the same leaders being elected every term, nothing much can be expected.

Ex-union leader Satish asserts that not even 10 per cent of industrial potential has been realised in the last few decades. To further decimate the industry, cotton mills are being converted into residential complexes.

With the Centre selecting Davangere for the ‘Smart City’ project, people expected a lot in terms of sanitation, waste management, SME hubs and so on. But the district authorities have not even spent 10 per cent of the Smart allocation to make this city livable,  economically vibrant and environmentally sustainable.

Once a famous trading and manufacturing centre for cotton textiles, today it is a ghost city, as one can only see remnants of the past glory, be it in KT Jambanna Colony or the shut doors of the innumerable cotton mills. Once this colony housed hundreds of mill workers and their families but today, most of them are either dead or have left for ‘greener pastures’.

Only a few remain to tell the story of the city’s rich past. Like 77-year-old Haleshappa, who worked in Davangere Cotton Mills Ltd, and fondly recalls those “good old days” to say, “For 25 years, I worked tirelessly but they shut shop without a second thought. I was on a salary of Rs 3,500 per month during those days.”

Difficult times fell upon the family after the closure of the mill, and to fend for his loved ones, Haleshappa took to being a coolie. “The industrial heritage is lost forever as nobody is interested in reviving it,” he says.

Education hub

Today, the city is known more as a hub of higher education. It is estimated that there are more than 36 institutions of learning at the graduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels. So one can see how the cotton mills of yesterday have been replaced by engineering and medical colleges, and again, most of them are run by the Shamanur family. Here the writ of father and sons is all-pervasive, leaving the electorate hesitant to even talk about them.

Further, there is a seething resentment against the prevailing scenario where industries have not come up after the 1990 industrial shutdown. So no jobs or employment opportunities have been created in the last decade, according to Kumar, a former Chandroday Mills employee. He adds, “The present political system in Davangere has not allowed any development in the industrial sector – textiles, garments or engineering products.”

Lack of quality education

In this educational, and health hub, in fact, nearly 10% of the population is dependent on the Shamanur family for livelihood as 10,000 people are employed in  various colleges – medical, engineering, dental, hospital, sugar and liquor industries owned by the family. So if some are grateful, others, though full of resentment, say, “It’s a foregone conclusion that the two contestants will win this time too.”

An academician from the city  concludes that despite having so many educational institutions, none of them are providing quality education. “Numbers cannot give quality education or skilled workers or for that matter, quality healthcare. Davangere has added so many hospitals but what is the use? Patients from the district still flock to Manipal or Mangaluru; it is only poor people who avail the dismal healthcare here. The family has neither allowed any industry to come up nor encouraged young political blood to contest or compete. The district and the city suffers, and its people bemoan their fate,” he adds.