North Karnataka: Forgotten and Neglected
Karnataka is all set for final phase elections. The people of whole North Karnataka including Belgaum, Gulbarga, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Bidar, Gadag, Haveri and Hubli-Dharwad will exercise their vote today.
Several elections have come and gone. Politicians visit people every time during elections and make huge castle election promises. But no representative and no party has ever done any significant development for North Karnataka. It is still the forgotten and neglected part of the state even after 50 years.
Many awareness campaigns were raised to motivate people to come out of home and vote. Lead India, several other volunteer/ non profit organizations, several organizations including my employer tried to bring awareness by putting ads on TVs, newspapers, notice boards and by sending official mails in order to increase voter turnout. But will these be really effective when the people have lost total interest in state politics because of lack of stable govt, opportunist politicians and all burning issues which politicians are not even having a glance on them.
Coming back to North Karnataka, it has been severely lagging from all aspects. There is a backwardness in everything infrastructure, education, economy, government facilities, rail links, road transport, airports, tourism..etc
Every politician come and give huge promises and unrealistic plans. They will promise like anything.. this that. that this..all blah blah and bullshit. This time,for third phase, most national leaders have toured for campaign.. L K Advani, Susma Swaraj, Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Lalu, Mayavati and many more. These are the people who build castle in the air. Someone has rightly said politicians build bridge even when there is no river. Let alone national leaders, even the politicians from North Karnataka like Dharam Singh / Kharge are doing nothing for NK and even after this they are winning continuously. Now whom to blame? NK people expected a lot when Dhram Singh became CM and unfortunately even he couldn’t do anything during his CMship.
Leaders of North Karnataka are good for nothing and they never fought for anything. All they know is earn(black or white doesn’t matter), eat and sleep till next elections. Inspite of number of agitations from people, nothing improved and nothing initiated. Farmers of NK are dependent on rain for agriculture. Don’t politicians think irrigation projects are needed? The Kalasa Banduri Nala project for Hubli-Dharwad people, development of airports of NK region, new rail links for connecting various places of NK and several other projects are still a dream.
Myself being from North Karnataka, I feel shame to say that our leaders are useless. But fortunately decade by decade, there is gradual rise in mass agitation and also politicians started believing that they need to look into these long remaining issues.
We need to elect leaders who make difference to us. I know, these all have made us to lose interest in overall politics. You may opt to choose not to vote thinking that no leader will do anything for us! But by your decision of not voting, worst leaders will be chosen and condition will be even more pathetic. Vote for good leader. If there is no good leader nominated, atleast vote for comparatively not so worse leader, thus by preventing worst leader to be chosen.
Exercise you vote today! Your vote will make a differnce!
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Dear Harsha,
Namaskara.
Thanks for inking an article about the neglect that is enforced on Northern Karnataka. The Northern Karnataka is treated in terms of it’s erstwhile geographical affiliations to the state of Hyderabad and Maharashtra and nothing more. Added to this there is an utter lack of political will to look into the needs of developing NK.
If one visits the remote villages of Bidar, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Raichur, Bellary and other neighoubring districts, drinking water is a dream for many, come the scorching summers. Hagari, a small town at the border of AP and Bellary district, overflows with floods during the rainy season and goes waterless through the summer days. What the politicians, bureaucracy is doing to alleviate the basic needs for this tiny town, is naked truth reflective of this utter NK negligence. When will it stop? So long as the people do not realize that they can give these leaders / officials run for their responsibilities, these oppressive days will flourish.
Not to mention the IT / BT industry developments too, which have become the properties owned by select cities within Karnataka. Nobody wants this industry to grow out of other areas in NK. Why? The “interested” lot of influential people want to make hay, while it lasts, only in selected / blessed cities.
Personally, even though I have extremely busy schedules, I have been taking certain initiatives to bring a broader understanding of the need for IT / BT development within Hubli-Dharwad, as they have all the necessary basic ingradients for that industry to take off. But, it has been going on a lonely effort and there has been very little support to my efforts from across the globe. I feel that it is my duty to keep moving forward, as I have been blessed by the common people of NK, while I was in India. If I cannot contribute, I am failing having been successful in my life with the help from my people.
I only wish that GOD helps me in pursuing my efforts and sooner than later, there will be better days ahead of us, within North Karnataka.
Like Gandhiji said, “Be the change you want to see in the world”, I am doing my two cents.
Thanks and have a good day.
Best regards,
Nagesh Tavarageri
http://nageeta.blogspot.com
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Well written.
I too have observed the urgent need for developing NK.
Passion and the will to do is the need of the hour..
May 27th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I have to actually think of a worthwhile NAtional leader in the country who inspires. I can’t come up with any. It is not a malady that assails North Karnataka, it assails whole of the country.
June 5th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Harsha,
good writeup,, there is no denying in the fact that NK is far behind when it comes to development.
But the greats of gulbarga kharge, dharmu, HKPatil, deshpande,, did nothing for the region..
it is our political leaders apathy which has led to this situation.
check out this one:
http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/the-case-for-north-karnataka-as-a-separate-state/
comments talk abt how a separate state would be deterrent for out interests
July 5th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
N.karnataka desperately needs some development to talk abt. Take out bangalore out of Karnataka & what u get is statistics of northern BIMARU states.
Although I do agree that ppl of that region shud b proactive, which includes entrepreunership, so far nothing concrete steps have been taken to develop that region. Although there were cms from that region, still the govt machinery was always controlled by those from old mysore region. Ppl shud not be satisfied with promises, but something concrete. For ex allocate abt 300 cr each for Hubli,gulbarga. Develop these 2 cities as centres of economic activity. Do not go on starting airports in every town just to impress your vote bank. Examples r, Ramnagar dist was carved out for political reasons. Hundreds of crores were spent in Hassan and shimoga is following suit. Politicians shud have some vision. Take developmt outside blore for both blore’s and rest of ktaka’s good. Nk is pathetically backward. Even in south there r some backward places, but not as much as nk. The govts shud do something bfor ppl lose patience & the demand for separate state becomes stronger.