TUMAKURU: Around 100 people, including small children, left the thatched huts they call home, to sit on a day-and-night dharna outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office for a week, demanding that the administration grant them pucca houses and title deeds.
But their spirits were dampened as heavy rains battered the region late Sunday evening, leaving them in the lurch with electricity poles crashing, trees uprooting and stormwater drains overflowing in some places.
The power supply was interrupted, plunging the city into darkness. Superintendent of Police Ashok KV swung into action intimating his wife Ashwija BV, Tumakuru City Corporation (TCC) commissioner, who in turn informed Deputy Commissioner Subha Kalyan.
Coordinated efforts ensured the ‘protesters’ were guided to safety. Night shelters for the homeless operated by the Corporation came in handy. The rescued victims, including around 40 women, six differently abled persons and 12 children, were given food. “As it was raining heavily, I felt the need to launch a rescue operation, the town inspector got it done,” Ashok told The New Indian Express.
Indefinite strike
The administration seems to have got little respite, with the protesters resuming their dharna on Monday. “Let it rain. We will continue our strike indefinitely, until the government assures us the title deeds for our huts and lands granted some years ago. Our children are living in fear of attack by wild animals, especially bears,” said Gangamma, who lives in a small hut on a hillock on the outskirts of Irakasandra in Koratagere taluk.
She is from the nomadic ‘Sillekyata’ community. Maranna said some 20 families were facing a similar situation, with no power connection to their huts as the authorities had installed only street lamps. “Our children have to study under these street lamps,” he added.
This was also the plight of Santhosh of Nagegowdanabyala in Turuvekere taluk, Siddananjappa of Tigalarahalli in Madhugiri taluk among others. Their fight to get title deeds has a history of over a decade, as they have been running from pillar to post to get it done.
Social activist Handralu Nagabhushan, who is leading the protest, thanked the administration for its Sunday evening gesture. But he urged Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda to intervene and give justice to hundreds of families who were left in the lurch.
“We are determined to continue the indefinite strike but pin our hopes on the minister as he had made a name for himself in bringing in certain reforms in the department,” he remarked.