Karavali

2nd visit of DC Ibrahim to Banjarumale, polling booth allotted. 

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Beltangady, May 28: Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner Adoor B Ibrahim, visited Banjarumale, a remote place in Belthangady Taluk on Wednesday May 27th and initiated process of setting up a polling booth in this village for the gram panchayat election.

Banjarumale, a very remote place in Belthangady Taluk of Dakshina Kannada district is the place where the Malekudiya community (A Tribal community) is predominant. This place is devoid of all the modern facilities.

DC Ibrahim, who had visited Banjarumale last year (A deputy Commissioners visit to the place after 32 years) had assured the people of setting up a polling booth here.

Banjarumale has 106 voters at present. In the past, they had to travel about 30 km to reach Gundibagilu, the nearest polling booth to cast their votes.

But this time, in the gram panchayat elections on May 29th, the voters in Banjarumale will cast their votes in the polling booth at community hall here.

Bairu Malekudiya, a 80 year-old senior local person pasted the booth number (102 A) on the wall at the entrance of the community hall. Expressing his happiness he said, “I am happy that the polling booth has come close to my house. During the past elections, I had to travel for about 30 kms to cast my vote at Gundibagilu”, said Bairu Malekudiya who expressed his happiness.

On his arrival, the DC was given a rousing reception by the locals. The community hall there had been decorated with banana trees and wild flowers. The Malekudiya families offered oranges, pineapples, and other fruits grown by them to the DC in expression of their gratitude for his gesture.

Banjarumale is a very remote village falling under Neriya gram panchayat. No one from Banjarumale had been able to get BPL ration card till the DC visited the village last year. This time however, 15 families have got this card, and drinking water has been arranged at the community hall.

‘The social welfare department has distributed nutritious food for six months for 38 families. But the department delivers this foodstuff at Kakkinje, which is 21 km away. We have to pay jeep hire charges of Rs 800 to bring them here. It would have been beneficial if the food items were delivered at our village,’ said a gram panchayat former member, Krishna.

After Nirmiti Kendra built concrete road at a cost of Rs 30 lakh for a small stretch of road leading to Kakkinje from Banjarumale that is in steep terrain, the road is no more slippery. Social welfare department officials said that in tune with past promise, an amount of Rs 2.83 lakh has been disbursed to 19 people from the village for purchase of tailoring machines and stipend.

However, when the officials said that no one had applied for house repair assistance, the Malekudiya families said 15 families had applied for this facility, but none of the applications have been sanctioned. The DC asked the officials to consider the applications and disburse money if found eligible.

The DC promised to provide facilities like solar lamps costing Rs 15 lakh, construction of foot bridge at a cost of Rs 50 lakh in stages under different schemes of the government, as the investment required is huge.

The locals said that disability pension has been sanctioned to two children here, and as per the DC’s instructions given last year, medical officers have been visiting the village every month to conduct health check up. However, as the promise of increasing capacity of hydel power project near here has not been met, the village suffers from shortage of power.

We need such DC’s:

Since the past 30 years, we waited for the DC to visit this place. But none in the past visited this place. DC AB Ibrahim who visited this place last year, listened to our grievances and implemented several projects here. We need such officers who address the problems of the poor people, lauded a local A B Annappa.

Simple approach with the locals:

The Deputy Commissioner won the appreciation of all by responding as an ordinary person with all and hearing patiently to the people’s concerns.

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