KOPPAL: As many as 15 villages from four gram panchayats in Gangavati taluk of Koppal district have decided to seek exclusion from Hampi World Heritage Area and Management Authority.
This is because the authority’s permission is mandatory to get basic amenities such as construction of individual toilets, Ashraya houses, roads and bridges. Basic facilities are being delayed inordinately because of this, villagers said.
As the authority had called for suggestions/objections for revision of its rules and regulations, the villagers have come together to seek exclusion, official sources told TNIE. The authority, set up in 2002, includes 14 villages around Hampi and 15 from Gangavati taluk. Villages under Anegondi, Mallapura, Sangapura and Sanapura Gram Panchayats (GPs) of Gangavati taluk also come under the authority.
The villagers have decided to join hands with non-governmental and charitable organisations to get basic infrastructure in the 15 villages, said Malleshappa, an elderly man from Anegondi. Villagers also claimed that no monuments or structures in Gangavati taluk have been recognised by the Archaeology Survey of India.
Gangavati BJP MLA Paranna Munavalli charged the authority with being reluctant in giving permission for basic infrastructure in the 15 villages. Despite several attempts, the authority did not to respond to calls.