GADAG: In 2017 Swachh Bharat survey, Gadag city had ranked 7th in the state and 167th in the country. But, Hatalageri village, which is hardly 6 km from here, looks like a dump yard.
Ironically, the MLA here is the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H K Patil.
There is garbage everywhere, says Maruti Pujar, a resident of Hatalageri. “Neither the gram panchayat leader nor the local MLA Patil is concerned about this,” he says.
Large piles of plastic and other kinds of trash are invading school playgrounds, blocking drains and littering the pristine outskirts of the village. Pujar says that garbage has brought a hoard of mosquitoes and diseases.
Hatalageri’s story is the story of many villages in seven taluks of Gadag district. Civic amenities and cleanliness are restricted to the Gadag-Betageri twin-cities, few towns and few villages.
Recently, all interior roads in Gadag, Nargund, Ron, Shirahatti, Mundargi and other towns were relaid with concrete. Village roads were spruced up too. But shoulders of these roads are littered too.
Panchayat officials, who sit in Lakkundi village, blame villagers for not following rules for waste disposal and for dumping it in drains and open spaces. But residents say they have no proper garbage-collection system or a facility to leave their waste at.
Nabisab Mundargi, a daily-wager in Lakkundi, has noticed trash in front of historical monuments. Everyday tourists come here, he says, and they are put off by this. “The government should find a solution and the villagers should cooperate,” he says.
Gadag, which is known as home to many book publishers, has Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University, and many medical and engineering colleges. There are wide roads and government offices, and it could pass for a developed district headquarters. In the city, people are happy with Minister Patil.
They also credit him for bringing water from the Tungabadra River from Mundargi taluk border to Gadag. Water pipes are being laid 24X7 and this has addressed shortage of drinking water as well.
But, in villages of Mundargi taluk, they are suffering from severe water shortage. Residents here say that whatever water is available is being supplied to Gadag, and is not benefiting villagers who live near the river. The depend on borewells and wait in queues before water tankers.
“Minister Patil is the minister only for Gadag. Except for roads, villages have got nothing during his term,” says one resident. Recently, villagers of Lakkundi locked the gram panchayat office and staged a protest demanding allotment of houses under government schemes.