CHANDARKI: With a tiny population of only 6,000 people, Chandarki village in Yadgir district had not welcomed any Chief Minister so far in its existence. However, this changed on Friday as Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy set foot into Chandarki and stayed the night.
For the people of the village, it was a bonanza as Kumaraswamy came accompanied by half a dozen ministers, a dozen legislators and legislative council members and hundreds of district-level officers besides thousands of police personnel, all of whom descended on the village. Kumaraswamy reached Yadgir in the morning by the KK Express from Bengaluru.
A resident, Laxmi, who lost her husband a few years ago, asked Kumaraswamy for a job to help her care for her two children. Another woman, Sabavva, asked for a loan of Rs. 50,000 to start a business. Both requests were dealt with by Cooperatives Minister Bandeppa Kashampur who directed his officials to take action and send him a report.
Kumaraswamy proceeded to meet a group of physically challenged people and listened to their issues while promising all possible help. “It is a great thing that the king of the state has come to our doorstep to solve our problems. Such things are common in big functions,” said 84-year-old handloom weaver M Laxman.
‘Cloud seeding will be taken up in July’
In wake of the continued dry spell in many parts of the state, The CM admitted that he held a meeting with state chief secretary and senior officials of Department of Agriculture with regard to having cloud seeding in the state. He said, “Some places for cloud seeding have been selected where it will be take up in July.” During his village stay at Chandarki, the CM said he was aware of the ground reality in areas which were affected by drought and he was ready to help farmers by all means.
When asked whether he would gift programmes like Suvarna Gramodaya that emerged during his first phase of village stay programme in 2006, the CM said he would study problems of villagers of Hyderabad-Karnataka in the ongoing four village stays and would decide on the launch of such schemes. On renaming of Hyderabad-Karnataka Region Development Board and Hyderabad Region as Kalyan Karnataka, he said, simply renaming the region would not serve the purpose but the government would have to first bring welfare schemes.