People in Balige village deprived of telecommunication

"No landline telephone is working in the entire village. One has to climb the hills situated two kilometres away", say the residents of Balige.

The village of Balige, situated eight kilometres away from Horanadu, falls under the limits of Kalasa Gram Panchayat in Chikkamagaluru district.

The farming community is worried by the Inam land issue and the lack of telecommunication. The Inam land is before the Supreme Court. But, the telephone problem has gone from bad to worst.

Villager Shashikanth said that the village did not have a road earlier. "The existing road was built under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. But, now, all the fixed landlines are out of order and the mobile phone signals are not available," he complained.

Signals from Horanadu and Hirebail mobile phone towers too, are not available the last three months. One has to walk to Balige Katte or Vighneshwara Katte lying on the border of Koppa, situated two kilometres away from the village, to get mobile connections. People talking on mobile phones at this place is a common scene.

"The telecommunication department officials say that there is no equipment for fixed landline. But, what should we do if we do not get mobile phone signals? If no action is taken, we will gherao the telephone centre", warned Raitha Sangha activist Savinjaya.

Gram Panchayat member Suvarnamma said that the lack of telecommunication has become a huge hurdle during emergency situations such as illness and so on. She gets intimation of Kalasa Gram Panchayat meeting from her son, who travels 16 kilometres to her house to deliver the news.

Ironically, when this correspondent tried to call the Kalasa Telephone Centre to gather the feedback from the officials, no one picked the call.