Date:31/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/31/stories/2006123113110500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

A momentous event for many

Staff Reporter

LENDING A HELPING HAND: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy giving cheques to Devadasis during `Janata Darshan' in Bangalore on Saturday. — Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

BANGALORE: As hundreds awaited their turn outside Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy's official residence here on Saturday where the "Janata Darshan" programme was held, the parents of eight-year-old Chandana Kumar sported a smile for the first time in years.

Kumar has to undergo a heart surgery that would cost his family Rs. 60,000. After a phone call to a doctor at the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, the Chief Minister promised that the Government would provide Rs. 20,000 and the family had to pay only Rs. 10,000.

The event was momentous for 108 Devadasi women as well, who were all issued cheques for Rs. 15,000 each and promised houses by March end. "The Government has released Rs. 12 lakh for them, Rs. 9 lakh as subsidy. Even today, they live in huts. Many of them don't even have ration cards. I have asked the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) to build houses by March 31 for 13,000 Devadasi families identified by the Department and Women and Child Development," Mr. Kumaraswamy told presspersons later.

Devadasi women had come from Bijapur, Gulbarga, Bellary, Raichur, Koppal, Gadag, Haveri and Dharwad. The Chief Minister wanted them to concentrate on educating their children. To prevent them from going back to the Devadasi system, the Government had employed 600 children of Devadasis as volunteers by paying them Rs. 600 a month. The Government had released Rs. 32 lakh to boost self-employment among 234 beneficiaries identified by the State Backward Classes Development Board. At the "Janata Darshan" programme, Mr. Kumaraswamy distributed cheques for Rs. 15.48 lakh to 103 beneficiaries selected by the D. Devaraj Urs Backward Classes Development Board. Among them, eight were physically challenged.

Twenty-six beneficiaries identified by the Karnataka Minority Development Corporation were given cheques for Rs. 4.9 lakh. Fifteen of them were under a micro-credit policy. Admitting that there was misuse of funds, the Chief Minister made clear the Government's resolve to prioritise micro-finance for poor families.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said the Government was able to redress the grievances of 80 per cent of people who had attended the "Janata Darshan" programme. Only those who preferred government jobs to self-employment were second time or third time visitors, he said in response to a question. He said district officers had been asked to visit villages at least once a week to study the problems of the people. This system was in place in many districts, he added.

Outside the "Janata Darshan" venue, 375 Bescom meter readers complained that they were left out for no reason when services of 7,528 others were regularised. They had been working as meter readers for the past eight years earning less than Rs. 2,000 a month. "We are attending the Janata Darshan programme for the eighth time. All of us are over aged, between 30 and 40, and cannot find job anywhere else," they said. Inside, 12-year-old Geetha stared helplessly from her mother's lap. She had not taken any solid food in the past five years. Her parents could not pay the hefty hospital bills. The Chief Minister sanctioned Rs. 1 lakh to them on the spot as an exceptional case.

Squatting with her mother Nalini and grandfather Linge Gowda, five-year-old Inchara was a picture of beauty. But beyond that pretty sight lurked a deadly germ cell tumour. Having spent about Rs. 4 lakh on her treatment, her parents were shattered when the hospital declared that her survival depended on a bone marrow transplant. The family was given a cheque for Rs. 1 lakh.