Badami: April 12, 2018 will be a red letter day for the villagers of Ananthagiri, one of the last villages in the Badami taluk of Bagalkot district, as for the first time since independence, a public transport bus arrived to their village on Thursday.
There was no bound to the happiness of the villagers, as they danced, sang and even poured water on road to cleanse it to welcome the new bus. There was an festive atmosphere in the village. There women and children who were seeing bus for first time in their lives.
The bus service was not a 'gift', but a hard fought victory trophy for the villagers, as they succeed in making deputy commissioner to announce a new bus service to the village within a day. The villagers had threatened to boycott polls as the villagers had not received any basic facilities like road, drinking water, education and others, in the last seven decades.
The villagers on Wednesday had staged a protest and threatened to boycott the ensuing elections. Deputy Commissioner K G Shanthkumar visited the village after the protest. The villagers withdrew the protest only after the DC assured that they would get a new bus from Thursday.
As per the assurance, the new bus service was started between Bagalkot and Ananthagiri and the bus plies four trips, two in the morning and two in the evening.
District Public Transport Institute Officer Nitish Hegde, P V Maithri and local unit managing director I S Naikar and revenue department officials were present.
Initial hurdles
Bus driver had an herculean task in the first trip to make the bus climb the small hill, as there was hardly any road available. Villagers helped the bus driver to drive the bus to hill top.
And to the villagers disappointment, the service was withheld in the evening stating that bus service can not be provided as long as there is proper bus service. The officials have however assured that the road will be repaird by Friday and the buses would start plying again.
The bus would depart from Bagalkot at 8:00 am and 4:00 pm, said Mr Naikar.
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