Election awareness drives sweep Bidar off its feet

It was a day of Systematic Voter Education for Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programmes in Bidar.

It started with a signature campaign in areas with low polling percentage. Voters were asked to sign a pledge that they would not vote for any party or candidate against considerations or under fear.

Rajeev Jain, awareness observer from the Election Commission of India inaugurated the campaign by signing the pledge. He said that the polling time was extended by an hour in the evening and urged voters to make use of it.

Deputy Commissioner P.C. Jaffer said the SVEEP programme was being carried out in various innovative ways. Teams of folk artists have staged street plays in nearly half the villages in the district. Senior officials have spoken in special meetings in various colleges. In some colleges, first time voters were given application forms to add their names in the electoral rolls.

“We also organised a mock polling session in Lingaraj Appa engineering college. We have been organising brainstorming sessions for niche groups like government employees, non government organisations, doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and women’s groups. Self Help Group members and Anganwadi workers did a door-to-door campaign tying rakhis to the male members of the families and inviting them to come out on April 17 and vote. Rangoli and painting competitions were organised for women and children,” he said.

Decision-making

Mr. Jain addressed a meeting of women’s groups later. He said women were adept in handling domestic affairs as they participated in the decision-making of the house. “It is time you come out in large numbers and take part in the decision making process in the country,” he said.

Later, at a meeting of medical officers, Mr. Jain said doctors in Gulbarga had started using a seal that spoke of the importance of polling. He hoped the polling percentage would cross 80 in Bidar where the last Lok Sabha election saw only around 53 per cent voting.

Mr. Jain and other senior officers also attended a convention of physically challenged persons at Rang Mandir. He asked them to be ambassadors of free and fair polling in the district. “There are 40,000 physically challenged persons in the district. Each one of them should vote and motivate others to do so,” he said.

Rathna Kalamdani, Deputy Director of Women and Child Welfare, Bansilal Pawar, Deputy Director of Disabled Welfare and others were present.

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Kumaraswamy to campaign for Kashempur in Bidar today.

H.D. Kumaraswamy, the former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader, will campaign for Bandeppa Kashempur, party nominee, in Bidar on April 11.

The rally would be held at Ganesh Maidan at 5.30 p.m. on Friday, JD(S) district president Naseemoddin Patel told presspersons here on Wednesday.

MLA Mallikarjun Khuba said Congress candidate for the Lok Sabha polls N. Dharam Singh had failed to carry out his duties as an MP. It was time for change and Mr. Kashempur would defeat Mr. Singh this time, he said.

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Development is on the backburner in Bidar

Development does not seem to be the issue in the Lok Sabha elections at least in Bidar. Personality of the leaders, their loyal followers and caste dynamics seem to dominate poll-related discussions.

“That is because the Indian democracy is not merit based. Electoral choices are mostly based on caste affiliations,” says Vithaldas Pyage, a Dalit ideologue

If there was a roll of honour for backwardness, Bidar would figure among the top districts. It has high levels of infant and maternal mortality, malnutrition among children is high, and accessibility to qualified doctors is low and costly. Female literacy, especially among disadvantaged sections, is abysmally low. Job creation rate is low as industrial investment is negligible.

Farmers unhappy

According to the 2011 census, 89 per cent of the population depends on agriculture for sustenance. Farmers, however, are not happy.

There is no organised market for agriculture or horticulture produce. The agriculture produce marketing committee market yards have failed to implement the government order on using electronic scales. They still use mechanical scales.

The Raitha Sante markets largely remain non-functional. Pricing of farm produce is hardly in favour of the farmer. Farmer associations routinely complain that sugar factories don’t pay remunerative prices for sugarcane. Successive governments have neglected irrigation. No government has come up with a plan to utilise the 24 tmcft of water of the Godavari basin allotted to Bidar under the second Bachawat award.

Most parties are focusing on the personality of their leaders.

The BJP campaign revolves round its Prime Ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi. JD(S) workers speak of the achievements of party leaders H.D. Deve Gowda, H.D. Kumaraswamy and the nominee Bandeppa Kashempur, former agriculture minister. Congress workers speak of the “large-hearted” nature of their leader N. Dharam Singh. Middle level leaders and workers have started defecting from one party to another, citing reasons of loyalty to various leaders.

Like elsewhere in this country, caste seems to play a big role. Mr. Singh is a Rajput, Mr. Kashempur is a Kuruba, and AAP’s Chandrakanth Kulkarni is a Brahmin. BJP’s Bhagwanth Khuba is a member of the influential Lingayat community.

However, development is not at the centre of the poll campaign. It seems to be a talking point in meetings and rallies, at best.

“Campaign speeches are hypocritical. Leaders promise to develop the constituency, criticise their opponents for failing to bring in prosperity. But once the speech is over, they sit with community leaders and discuss nothing but ways in which to capture votes of various caste groups,” says Gandharva Sena, writer.

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Call to conserve Bidar’s architectural heritage

World Monument Fund representatives visited Bidar recently to visit important monuments and discuss plans to protect them with officials.

Mark Weber, field projects director, and Amita Baig, WMF representative in India visited the Karez system of underground water canals, the fort gates and the triple moat surrounding the royal enclosure in the fort on Monday.

Later, they held discussions with historians like B.R. Konda, and officials of the district administration.

Mr. Weber said that in Bikaner, Rajasthan, the city municipal council and NGOs had organised a Watch Day with the theme of ‘Keep Bikaner Clean’. He suggested celebrating Watch Day in Bidar with a similar theme. This would contribute towards creating awareness about the heritage of the city and the need to conserve it, he said.

Ms. Baig appreciated the plans of the district administration to organise an international seminar on the Karez systems in a few months. She assured of all technical support to the government in protection of monuments.

Deputy Commissioner P.C. Jaffer said the district administration was seeking the partnership of various agencies to protect monuments and promote tourism. Subir Hari Singh, chief advisor, Indian Heritage Cities Network, Ujjwal Kumar Ghosh, Zilla Panchayat chief executive officer, Sunil Panwar, deputy conservator of forests, were present.

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Bad roads, overflowing drains wreak havoc in Old Bidar City

While copious rains have brought cheer for the farming community it has wreaked havoc in the lives of some residents in the Old Bidar City, thanks to bad roads and overflowing drains.

Take for instance the case of residents of Dalhan Darwaja Road behind the zilla panchayat office, Decent Function Hall, and Gawan Chowk. Every time there is a downpour, the drains overflow on the roads making it difficult for its users.“We have to wade through water to go out. Riding a two-wheeler in such situations is out of question,” said Mir Bidri, a resident of Faizpura lane.

Syed Firasat Ali, resident, says: “Water enters my house every alternate day when it rains. It has become a routine for us to flush out water.”

Some residents say a part of the problem is their own making.

A.Q. Khaleel, a retired employee who lives here, says, “Five years ago, the city municipal council demolished houses along the stretch from the ZP office to Ashtur village and the one connecting Gawan Chowk to Nizam Cross. The authorities said owners had encroached upon government land. Some people went to court and got a stay. So, whenever CMC took up road works, the two roads were left out. However, now that the stay on works on Gawan Chowk Road has been lifted, work has begun there”, he said.

Syed Riaz, Commissioner in-charge of the CMC, said repair and relaying of the two roads would be taken up in phases. These works have nothing to do with the cases. They are two different issues. The CMC is mandated to repair roads and drains across the city, he said.

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Bidar ZP approves Rs. 68.43-crore action plan.

The Bidar Zilla Panchayat approved an annual action plan of Rs. 68.43 crore in the general body meeting held here on Tuesday.

Latha Harkude, president, said: “the 150 gram panchayats and five taluk panchayats had approved action plans for a total of Rs. 71.5 crore this year.

Therefore, we are forwarding a request to the State government to release Rs. 140 crore for taking up development at the village, taluk and district levels.” Of the Rs. 140 crore,

Rs. 85 crore would be released as grants by the State government and the rest by the Union government.

Ujjwal Kumar Ghosh, chief executive officer, said the largest chunk of Rs. 32.48 crore was set aside for primary and secondary education, Rs. 8.37 crore will be spent on health and family welfare and Rs. 5.9 crore on community health programmes.

As much as Rs. 5.85 crore would be spent on women and child welfare and Rs. 1.63 crore on agriculture. Budget outlays have also been set for 18 other departments.

ZP members approved the plan after confirming that expenditure on all revenue circles would be similar.

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Monuments in Bijapur, Gulbarga, Bidar may get heritage site tag.

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) may soon give the world heritage tag to monuments in Bijapur, Gulbarga and Bidar in Karnataka, and Golkonda in Hyderabad.

The State government and the Advisory Committee for World Heritage Matters have included monuments in these four places in the list to be submitted to the UNESCO, officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) said. The committee met recently in Chennai.

Proposal

“During the meeting, a proposal was made to include monuments built by Adil Shahis of Bijapur, Barid Shahi of Bidar, Bahmanis of Gulbarga and Qutub Shahi of Hyderabad in the list.

It will be a major step towards their preservation,” J. Ranganath, Assistant Superintending Archaeologist Engineer of the Dharwad Circle of the ASI, said.

He told The Hindu that a list of a cluster of monuments had been made as the new norms of the UNESCO did not allow recommendation of a single monument for the world heritage site tag. While Bidar had 40 protected monuments, Gulbarga had 12 and Bijapur 80.

Initially, the ASI prepared a tentative list of monuments and submitted it to the advisory committee, which would be forwarded to the UNESCO.

If the approval was granted, a complete dossier of monuments, city map and other details would be submitted to the UNESCO. Mr. Ranganath said that within a year, a list of monuments and basic documentation work would be submitted to the committee for further action.

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