Raichur has it all, yet gets nothing

The voters, apparently tired of this play of paradoxes, seem to have stayed out of the booths when this district in northeast Karnataka went to the polls on Friday. The Election Commission recorded only 47 per cent polling, while last year the figure was around 56 per cent.

Voters milled around voting booths but were undecided on exercising their franchise. S. Basavaraja, a farmer, said, “Three MLAs have become ministers from this constituency, but we still face water and electricity problems.” These ministers are Sudhindra Kasbe of the Congress, a minister in the nineties but who is not contesting this year, Muniyappa Muddappa, who is contesting from Raichur city on an SP ticket; and Amreesh Naik of the Congress in 2004, who stayed out to give his son Raiappa a chance in Raichur rural.

Then, the water problems. At a public meeting in Raichur earlier in May, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had said that it was ironical that Raichur had two rivers—Krishna to the north and Tungabhadra to the south—but the area remained drought-prone. The district Congress’s excuse is, at best, weak. A senior leader said on condition of anonymity: “There is a canal from Tungabhadra but some villages fall in the tail end of the canal and hence face problems.”

Power is another worry. Even with the thermal power station, which accounts for around 40 per cent of Karnataka’s power supply, Raichur suffers intermittent power cuts. E. Lingappa of Kolmala village, around 20 km from Raichur city, said, “They told us the power was too heavy to be supplied directly and must therefore be routed to Gulbarga and then to us.” Another paradox.