60-yr-old from Karnataka Travels to Delhi to Meet Siddaramaiah to get Land Promised by Govt

Bengaluru: How far would you go to meet your elected representative and get your local problems resolved? A distance of 2,019 kilometers proved to be more effective than 58 kilometers for a senior citizen in Karnataka.

Sixty-year-old Muniyamma from Gudibande taluk in Chikkaballapur, which is around 58 kilometers from capital city Bengaluru, had been trying, for many days, to reach out to the chief minister’s office to get her problems solved. Her land was in dispute and the government was supposed to grant her an alternate piece of land in a different place. But there were unnecessary delays in the allocation.

So when Muniyamma heard that CM Siddaramaiah was headed to Delhi, over 2,000 kilometers from her home, she decided that the national capital would be the right place to get his audience. She packed whatever little things she had and set off to Delhi by train.

Dipti Kande, Deputy Commissioner of Chikkaballapur District said, "Chief Minister Siddharamaiah had called me this morning. He told 'A lady named Muniyamma, the wife of Muniyappa will come and meet you about her problem. You must take up the matter immediately. All the details concerning the problems will be given by her itself.' So now I am waiting to meet her. She will be at Chikkaballapur tomorrow and I will meet her then.

“She felt that the CM had a packed schedule every day in Bengaluru and during his tours of other districts, he was too busy to spare a few minutes to actually understand her problems. So, she left for Delhi,” said a CMO official.

With no knowledge of Hindi, she asked almost 40 people for directions to the Karnataka Bhavan. She finally got to meet the CM, who was so moved by her plight that he immediately called the district deputy commissioner (Collector) Dipti Kanade and asked her to solve Muniyamma’s land issue on priority basis.

Not only that, Muniyamma was offered accommodation and food while in Delhi, and cash for her return journey. A content woman now, Muniyamma returned to her home town soon after assurance from the CM himself. The distance, clearly, wasn’t huge enough for the determined woman.