HUBBALLI: Amid the urban clamour of development in the twin cities, Unkal village, which is very much part of Hubballi city , has retained its rural flavour till date.Though Unkal comes under the limits of Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) and has many new layouts surrounding it, development is a far cry for the sleepy village.Unkal has 25 streets and a population of 1.50 lakh, but lacks basic amenities like roads, drains, playground, bus stops, library, primary health centre (PHC) and others. HDMC had kept aside a separate fund for the development of villages under its limits, but failed to improve the infrastructure in the area.Unkal, which is thickly populated, has no primary health centre and people are dependent on Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) Hospital which is 4km away. The demand of villagers to set up a full-fledged PHC in the village went in a vain.The residents of Sai Nagar, Taj Nagar were worst sufferers as these areas are located in interior parts of the city.Unkal has no playground or park and residents are forced to go to Muneshwar Nagar, Sai Nagar and Timber Yard for morning or evening walks.A majority of the residents in the area are farmers and they still rear cattle, but lack of space to graze cattle and to store hay stock forced them to stop the practice of rearing cattle. Residents are demanding a 40 gunta of land exclusively for this purpose, but nothing has happened so far.Basavraj Mulloli, a social activist from Unkal, said, “Though Unkal merged in the HDMC decades ago, facilities here are not better than any village. The entire area is represented by three corporators, despite this the area has not seen development to the expectation of the residents. The area lacks community hall, primary health centre and bus stops.”Hanumanth Bhavani, a resident of Sullad Oni, demanded HDMC members to develop parks in the area. Many elderly people use roads for morning and evening walks, which is risky. To avoid any untoward incident, at least one or two parks should be developed, he said.Ravi Bhavani, a resident of Bootenavar Oni said many NWKRTC buses use Unkal, Sai Nagar road to reach Savadatti, a major pilgrim centre. Developing Sai Nagar bus stop into a full-fledged bus stand would help residents and businessmen, and reduce traffic pressure on the city.Aziz Desai, deputy commissioner of HDMC, told TOI that steps will be taken to build a PHC in the area and approval for the same will be taken at the next HDMC general body meeting. The HDMC will build necessary infrastructure in the coming days, he said.

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