TNSTC finds it an uphill task to serve Podugampatti

Residents of Podugampatti in Dindigul district demand better infrastructure, including road, bus service, healthcare, and water facilities.

B. Dhanalakshmi, a nurse, was working in a big hospital in Madurai about six months ago. However, she had to quit her job - because she could not reach the hospital in time. A resident of Podugampatti, off the Madurai-Natham highway in Parali Pudur panchayat in Dindigul district, she had to walk for close to an hour to reach the highway about four kms from her hamlet and another one km to reach the bus stop in Vemparali.

She says that it was always a mad rush in the morning to reach the bus stop as no bus came to Podugampatti. Unable to endure this ordeal, she quit her job.

Podugampatti, a picturesque hamlet with around 100 families, lies on the foothills of the Sirumalai range and though it comes under Dindigul district, the villagers depend on Madurai for work, education, shopping and everything. Most of the residents in the hamlet, comprising people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Most Backward Classes, are daily wagers. One has to walk uphill from the highway to reach Podugampatti.

College and school students leave in batches as early as 6 a.m., most of the time skipping their breakfast or carrying them, so as to catch the bus and reach their destination on time.

A daily wager, S. Krishnan, says earlier there was no proper road to the hamlet from the main road. The road with a steep gradient was in a bad condition. Following protests by residents after some of them suffered injuries due to accidents, the road was relaid. However, this road was laid only for a few metres from the highway. Beyond Kuttu, another hamlet near the entrance, the road remains battered, he says.

For the residents, their main demand has been a bus service to Periyar bus stand and Natham, at least once in the morning and evening, so that they need not walk all those miles. The distance between Periyar bus stand and the hamlet is around 30 km.

A. Subbiah, an elderly person, says the bus service and the need for a good road were long- pending demands of the residents. Though they had approached the authorities with these demand, their genuine demands were never looked into.