Basic amenities elusive in Davanagere hamlet

DAVANAGERE: Dibbada Hatti in Jagalur taluk, Davanagere is a small hamlet with a little more than 60 houses spread across a small area, with most residents hailing from communities belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC)/ Scheduled Tribes (ST), or are Muslim. This small hamlet is currently dealing with problems disproportionately bigger than its humble size.
To begin with, the roads leading to the hamlet are either so bad as to be non-existent or actually are, while the lack of a system to supply potable water to the residents is a particularly distressing problem. Furthermore, the hamlet has no reverse-osmosis (RO) unit either. The open drains running around this small hamlet, have turned into breeding pools for mosquitoes and other insects that transmit vector-borne diseases. Consequently, many residents dwelling in the hamlet are coping with a host of health disorders.

Palaiah B, a resident of the hamlet, said that political leaders appeared amidst them only during the elections, to secure the votes of the 220 eligible voters in Dibbada Hatti. "When HP Rajesh of the Congress was the MLA, he had sanctioned a cement concrete road to our hamlet, besides approving the development of a streamlined drainage system, and drinking water facility.
But the incumbent MLA, SV Ramachandra, who visited the place only in the run-up to the polls, has not returned to the hamlet. We are all very upset with the legislator who is not concerned about our plight. When it rains, neither two-wheelers nor autos can travel on the mud roads connecting the hamlet with the main road, which is one-and-a-half kilometres away," said Palaiah, highlighting the irony of the country celebrating 75 years since Independence, while they lived in such a pitiful condition.
Fellow resident of Dibbada Hatti, Lakshmamma, said that the lamentable state of the roads leading to the main road was the primary reason why the parents were reluctant to enrol their children in schools. "There is no public transport facility available to us. Many children who did enrol at schools dropped out owing to a variety of such reasons," she said.
The hamlet, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Santhemuddapura gram panchayat (GP), is not represented in the local body. The lack of political representation even at the grassroots has meant that there is nobody in a position of power to lend voice to the woes of the hamlet.
Of the 60 houses dotting the hamlet, 40 are huts, and despite the several welfare schemes initiated by the government to rid villages of such shanty dwellings, the situation has not changed in our hamlet, rued Hassena. "We are a voiceless people, and continue to live in huts," she said. Haseena said that many young men in the village were having trouble getting married since prospective in-laws were unwilling to have their daughters residing in Dibbada Hatti.
Over 20 youths of the village could not get married as the relatives scared of giving their daughters to this village, Haseena said.
District administration should visit our village when there is a program of village stay, she observed. Though, we have achieved independence 75 years ago, still we are living in a pathetic state, Palaiah, lamented.
Repeated attempts by STOI to contact incumbent MLA SV Ramachandra yielded no result.