‘Give land rights to this slum.......otherwise, do not come here to seek votes.......’ No, this is not an election campaign of a political party. Instead, these words are written on a wall in the slum areas of Mariamma Nagar (Indira Nagar) in ward no 14, in the heart of the City.

Shri Mariamma Youth Association of this colony has beared the responsibility of this writing.

More than a 100 families are residing for the last 70 years in the slum area of Mariamma Nagar. The families residing in this region have been urging the authorities concerned to announce this area as a slum region and are seeking land rights. Apart from this, the slum dwellers are also seeking basic amenities like drinking water, roads, power facility, etc. They have submitted several memorandums to the deputy commissioner, Karnataka Slum Board, City Municipal Council, etc, but so far, it has not yielded any results, alleged President of Shri Mariamma Youth Association Kannan.

Also, the residents of the slum are enraged that the elected representatives so far had visited their area only to seek votes, but had failed to provide them with any basic facilities, nor had they bothered to declare this area as a slum area. Hence, the residents were forced to chose this path.

In the forthcoming elections, if the candidates contesting from Tumkur City failed to reciprocate to their demands, then, all the residents of this slum will take a unanimous decision, as to whether they would exercise their franchise or not in the coming elections, Mr Kannan informed.

It is very common to find walls in the City scribbled with candidates seeking votes. However, it the first writing of its kind on the wall, which says, gives us facilities first and then come here to seek votes. Contesting candidates who are on a door-to-door campaign seeking votes, are finding it really hard to visit this slum.