Andhra Pradesh: tribal people start laying road to their villages as pleas go unheard in Alluri Sitharamaraju district

VISAKHAPATNAM:

The tribal people of the remote hamlets of Pinakota, Jeenabadu and Peda Kota panchayats of Anantagiri mandal in Alluri Sitharama Raju district have taken up the construction of a 10-km road with ‘shramdaan’ after the authorities concerned failed to heed their pleas for laying the road.

A total of 180 Adivasis began the work by 7 a.m. on Monday. Working for about four hours, they levelled the ground for 1 km. At a time, when India is celebrating ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ to mark 75 years of Independence, the lack of roads is forcing tribals to walk for 7 to 15 km, carrying pregnant women and the sick in ‘dolis’, to reach the nearest road point, for shifting by ambulances from there to hospitals.

There are several instances of women delivering babies on the way due to delays in reaching hospitals. The tribal people allege that people’s representatives, who seek their votes before elections, fail to take note of their hardship after they got elected. The tribal leaders allege that a road was sanctioned under the Food For Work (FFW) programme in 2004 and till 2008, only jungle clearance was done and even the promised rice was not given to those employed by the contractor.

In 2013-14, ₹9 lakh was sanctioned towards material component and ₹21 lakh towards labour cost under MNREGS for construction of the road from Ballagaruvu to Reddipadu and Palabandha villages via Rachkilam.

The leaders from Girijan Sangham said that the officials had once again given them work of clearance of bushes for construction of the road. They alleged that the contractor had not paid them for their labour. The officials had said that machinery would be deployed for the work but that had not happened resulting in the sanctioned funds getting lapsed, they alleged.

The officials have been telling them time and again that the road work would be done. Though governments were changing and officials were getting transferred, the work is pending. “When the ITDA Project Officer Ronanki Gopalakrishna had visited Dayarthi village, last year, we apprised him of our problem. Later, he sent the MPDO to do a survey and prepare estimates,” says CPI(M) district secretariat member K. Govinda Rao.

Though the officials have been saying that the road work would be taken up, nothing has happened so far. Vexed with the problem, the tribal youths held a meeting and decided to take up road construction by themselves.