An application written in human blood demanding the upgradation of Ratgal village in Kalaburagi district as a hobli centre was submitted to the office of Deputy Commissioner here on Wednesday.
The application was written with the blood of four activists from the village, Shankar Choka, Gaurishankar Kinni, Santosh Kumar Pujari and Sharanabasappa Mamshetty, and submitted to the Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner requesting him to forward it to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Mr. Mamshetty said.
The activists showed the application at a media conference before submitting it and said that the soft copies of the application have already been sent through mail to the Chief Minister, the Revenue Minister and other authorities.
“We have been demanding a new hobli centre for 13 villages with Ratgal as the centre. The villages together have a population of around 25,000 and villagers are finding it difficult to reach heir hobli centre in Kodli which is around 12 km away. If a new hobli is carved out with Ratgal as the centre, people can easily reach it for their day-to-day work,” Mr. Mamshetty said.
Asked why they have resorted to such an extreme step of writing the application in blood, Mr. Mamshetty said that their earlier efforts to convince the government of the need for action have been in vain.
“It is our long-pending demand and all our earlier efforts, including protests and representations, have been in vain. We had hoped that the Government will announce the formation of Ratgal Hobli in the last winter session of the State Legislature. But, our hopes were shattered. Then, we decided to write the application in blood,” Mr. Mamshetty said.
