He was speaking at a taluk-level grievance meeting for members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from Puttur and Kadaba taluks, held at the Taluk Panchayat meeting hall in Puttur.
Deputy Commissioner said gomala land is reserved exclusively for cattle and cannot be used for any other activity. He also said there would be no compromise on issues concerning children.
Taking note of complaints about wastewater from hotels, Darshan instructed officials to ensure that hotels do not discharge sewage into drains. Hotels should be required to construct appropriate pits, and notices should be issued to establishments violating the rules.
He said Tahsildars would be instructed to ensure that prohibited and derogatory terms relating to communities are not used in official proceedings or records. On demands for community buildings, he said necessary action would be taken if suitable land was identified and brought to the authorities' notice.
Deputy Commissioner also directed officials to ensure that children are not made to suffer unnecessarily for transfer certificates and asked the Social Welfare Department to take appropriate action in such cases.
He said the district administration has set a target of providing house sites to 50,000 families. If funds earmarked for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are diverted for other purposes, criminal cases would be registered, he warned. He further said that if stone had been illegally extracted, a penalty amounting to 10 times the applicable amount would be imposed.
Concerns raised by community members
Several participants brought up issues relating to transport, land, caste certificates, community buildings and basic civic facilities. Pramod said banks were refusing to issue NOCs required for renewal of auto-rickshaw permits after five years. He said the problem continued even after loans had been fully repaid, with banks citing the applicant's status as a guarantor.
Chidananda raised concerns over applications submitted under the Akrama-Sakrama scheme. He said land where cashew cultivation had earlier existed had subsequently been planted with arecanut, but the authorities were treating it as new cultivation and were also raising objections by classifying the land as forest land.
Vamana said applicants were spending ₹200 to ₹250 for caste certificates and were required to wait for long periods at revenue offices, resulting in loss of daily wages. He sought appropriate action regarding affidavits being demanded during the process. Babu Marike demanded that the dispute over the proposed site for the Ambedkar Bhavan at Bannur be resolved and that steps be taken to enable construction of the community hall at the earliest.
More demands from participants
Participants alleged that crop surveys were not being properly conducted by agents, resulting in farmers being deprived of benefits. They also said survey work was being affected because survey numbers were not being properly identified.
Concerns were raised over what participants described as official indifference when matters concerning Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's name and community halls came up during meetings. Some participants criticised the grievance meetings, saying they appeared to be conducted merely as a formality.
A demand was also raised to remove the requirement for affidavits from members of the Mogera community in Puttur.
Participants sought action regarding access roads leading to community members' houses and complained about sewage flowing behind a government school in Uppinangady, posing a risk to children. They also demanded that benefits available to construction workers be extended to agricultural labourers and said government procedures and regulations were causing unnecessary delays.
On Akrama-Sakrama applications, participants said several applications had been pending for years, with applicants being denied land on the grounds that it fell within municipal limits. They urged authorities to implement decisions already approved by the committee.
Community members question delay in starting meeting
The timing of the meeting also became an issue. Invitation had specified 11 a.m., but even after a delay of around 30 minutes, officials had not entered the meeting hall. When the time displayed on the screen was changed to 11.30 a.m., community representatives who had been waiting objected.
They questioned why they had been asked to arrive early if the authorities could change the scheduled time according to their convenience. Following the objection, the time displayed on the screen was changed back to 11 a.m.
Additional Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar Bhumareddy, Puttur Deputy Superintendent of Police Pramod Kumar, Belthangady Deputy Superintendent of Police C.K. Rohini, Puttur Tahsildar B.S. Kudalagi, Kadaba Tahsildar Ganesh Savanur and Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer Naveen Bhandari were present.
Keywords
Puttur SC/ST grievance meeting, Puttur Deputy Commissioner Darshan H V, Puttur crop survey, GPS-based crop survey Karnataka, Puttur land issues, Puttur SC ST welfare, Puttur Suddi, Puttur News, Citizen News Puttur