Displaced for hospital, but denied hospitality
Official apathy
Life in compressed form. That best describes the predicament of families displaced from the Basappa Choultry in the city.
The choultry will soon make way for a state-of-the-art hospital to complement the district government hospital.
As many as 35 out of the 45 families have been shifted to temporary sheds at Kandavara on the outskirts of the city. A kitchen, a bedroom and a resting place are crammed into an apology for a home.
Bad turns worse when it rains or if there is a heavy breeze. If there are too many household articles, family members are forced to stay out. Electricity, water and sanitary facilities have been provided to them. While 35 families have at least this, the rest are not so lucky. They are yet to be provided even the temporary sheds. Authorities say it will take more time to provide all the facilities for these families.
The process to build a super-speciality hospital gained momentum when district incharge Minister Shobha Karandlaje visited the city recently. She had said that constructing the hospital in the heart of the city would help many people and hence the Basappa Choultry was chosen as the location.
Members of the shifted families say it will take some more time for them to adopt to the new surroundings. They are finding it difficult to travel to their work places given that Kandavara is away from the city centre. It has become difficult for the people to maintain the families, especially taking care of children, in such congested living places.
It is all the more difficult for bigger families. The poor families are demanding that they be given better alternative rehabilitation at the earliest. Assistant Commissioner P Vasanth Kumar told Deccan Herald steps would be taken to help these families. They would soon get title deeds, he said. If they submitted applications, along with the title deeds, to the Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation, houses would be constructed for them and other facilities would follow, he added.
