Killari's sarpanch Shankarrao Padsalgi is an angry man. He heads a village which nature destroyed five years ago, burying dreams in the rubble heap where once stood happy homes. Padsalgi today says he has waited too long for help. Too long has his village lived on hope, fed by politicians who did "very little" after the quake destroyed Killari and some 50 other villages in Latur district. It is Killari's turn now to settle scores with politicians when Latur goes to the polls on February 28.``We are not interested in the elections. All these years, these MLAs and MPs have done so very little for the quake-affected. They have offered us only false promises. The candidates have no face to show now,'' Padsalgi says without mincing words.``Had it not been for these untimely elections, some of the families would have moved into newly-built houses this month itself. But even that has been denied because the district administration has had to deploy its entire staff for election duty.'' Padsalgi's irritation atthe mention of elections seems understandable.After the quake, the district administration had planned to complete the construction of 2,240 new houses at Killariwadi by December, 1997 and ensure total rehabilitation of the homeless in Killari by June, 1998.Villagers say they have weightier matters on their mind than the fate of the Vajpayees and the Sonias. They hardly have any time to worry about the elections, since the quake they spend the better part of the day worrying about the inadequate supply of water in tankers, erratic power supply, the absence of a post office, a state transport bus stand, pucca roads, drains and toilets.In Nagarsola village, Dilip Musande complains about not being compensated for the crop damage during the unseasonal rains three months ago. ``The State Government had promised us compensation at the rate of Rs 1,000 per hectare. They have not kept their word. First, nature brings us misery. And then, the Government adds to the hardship. What are we to do?''BabasahebPatil says he had planned to question Gopinath Munde, the State Deputy Chief Minister, when the latter came to Killari to address a rally on February 10. ``I was going to interrupt Munde's speech. I wanted to ask him why he had not kept even one of the six promises he had made to us when we went to Mumbai. But some of the elders dissuaded me from interrupting Munde.''The villagers say they see no difference between the BJP and the Congress when it comes to honouring promises. Seventy-year-old Raibai Godke, whose son died in the 1993 quake, was in Aausa when Sharad Pawar was campaigning there for the Congress.``I never got the flat which I had been promised after my son died in the quake. His four children live with me in a Kudacha Ghar (a bamboo house). I came to Aausa, hoping Sharad Pawar would tell me how to acquire a flat. He said he was very busy with the elections but would certainly attend to my problem once the polls are over.''But the Raibai Godkes of Latur know the politicians live from onepolls to another and a promise just remains that, a promise.
