Panchayat Raj officials survey hilltop hamlet for laying road in Anakapalli district

Engineering officials conduct survey for BT road from Pithrigedda to Jajulabandha in Arla panchayat, addressing tribal community's healthcare challenges.

The engineering officials and staff led by Deputy Executive Engineer (Panchayat Raj Projects), Chintapalli, D. Suresh Reddy and J.E. Kiran, conducted a survey at the hilltop hamlet of Jajulabandha in Arla panchayat of Anakapalli district for the preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) for laying of a BT road from Pithrigedda to Jajulabandha.

The officials visited the hamlet after the ‘Spotlight’ story titled ‘Diseases haunt A.P.’s verdant hills’ published in The Hinduhighlighted how seasonal diseases are affecting the tribal people and their travails in carrying the sick in dolis in the absence of roads to the hilltop hamlets.

They told the villagers that they would prepare the DPR and cost estimates and submit a proposal for the road work to the government.

“We conducted a Differential Global Positioning Survey (DGPS) survey on June 4. We visited the hamlet trekking from Pithrigedda to Jajulabandha on June 3. We are in the process of preparing the DPR, which will be submitted to the State Technical Adviser (STA) of PM JANMAN in about a week for approval. It will pass through various stages to reach the Empowered Committee. The entire process will take three to six months,” Mr. Suresh Reddy told The Hindu.

“The road from Arla to Pithrigedda was sanctioned under the MGNREGS in December 2024. The work is in progress and is expected to be completed in six months,” he said.

“The government sanctioned ₹1 crore under MGNREGS for laying a road from Arla to Jajulabandha in 2023. The officials built only four culverts and showed in the records that they had spent ₹28 lakh. The tribal people staged protests to highlight the apathy in laying the road, after which the work was stopped,” said K. Govinda Rao, district executive committee member of CPI(M.)