TUMAKURU: Despite being allegedly insulted over his caste by people of the Kadugolla community at Pemmanahalli Gollarahatti village in Pavagada taluk, Chitradurga MP Anekal Narayanaswamy’s ‘love’ for these villagers has not died. Not only did he refuse to initiate action against them under the SC/ST Act, he took their attitude as a challenge in order to win over them. For the past few days, the lawmaker was busy at Vidhana Soudha, meeting various ministers and bureaucrats, seeking funds for Pavagada’s development.
Meanwhile, to his advantage, primary and secondary education minister S Suresh Kumar, stayed at a school at N Acchamanahalli village in the taluk on Thursday night to get first-hand information about the situation of schools in the taluk. “Narayanaswamy has been focussing on Pavagada assembly constituency, from which he garnered over 52,000 votes during the Lok Sabha polls. He might have ambitions to contest from there in the future,” said K E Siddaiah, a resident of Pavagada.
However, when contacted by The New Indian Express, the MP categorically denied any such plans and maintained that he has also been focusing on the development of Challakere and Hosadurga.“I am not crazy to take a chance from Pavagada. I will concentrate on solving the fluoride problem in Chitradurga by pushing for the release of surface water from the Krishna basin. Within a month’s time, clean water will flow in the district,” he said.
He clarified that he does not want to be painted as a villain in the eyes of the villagers. “The educated people of the same community will take up a campaign to put an end to such ill practices”, he said.The Chitradurga MP A Narayanaswamy clarified that he will not be visiting the aforementioned village on Friday. “I am not in a hurry to get publicity by visiting the village. I will go after I announce concrete projects that will make a marked change in the village,” he said.
He said that he would take up the issue of the villagers that are yet to be declared as revenue villages. “A step was taken to convert them into revenue villages but it has not been gazetted as yet,” he said.
‘Need to change people’s mindset’
Chitradurga MP Anekal Narayanaswamy said that changing the mindset of people was the need of the hour. He was referring to the unfortunate incident at a village in Pavagada taluk. “It should take place voluntarily and not forcibly,” he said. Stating that he was not eyeing votes, he said that he felt bad about the way he was treated at the village.