Tribal Folks In Andhra Began Laying Road To Their Villages As Authorities Kept Neglecting Their Plea

The tribal residents of the isolated villages of Pinakota, Jeenabadu, and Peda Kota panchayats of Anantagiri Mandal in the Alluri Sitharama Raju district of Andhra Pradesh have voluntarily undertaken the construction of a 10-kilometre road after the concerned authorities overlooked their plea.

The administration has repeatedly misled the tribal people into thinking that the road work will begin, but nothing has happened. As a result, the youngsters gathered and resolved to construct roads independently. Almost 180 tribe members started building the road on Monday (November 7) at seven in the morning.

MNREGS Fund For Road Construction In 2013–14

The tribal people allege that while candidates for public office seek their support before elections, they forget to consider their difficulties once they are in office. As part of the Food For Work (FFW) initiative, a road was also approved in 2004; however, until 2008, only jungle clearance had been carried out.

In order to build the road from Ballagaruvu to Reddipadu and Palabandha villages via Rachkilam, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) programme approved ₹9 lakh for the material component and ₹21 lakh for labour costs in 2013-14.

Leaders from Girijan Sangham said, "The officials had once again given them work of clearance of bushes for construction of the road. The contractor did not pay us for our labour."

'Govt Changed, Officials Transferred But Construction Still Pending'

According to the tribal people, though governments were changing and officials were getting transferred, the work is pending, as per a report of The Hindu.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) district secretariat member K Govinda Rao stated, "We informed the ITDA Project Officer Ronanki Gopalakrishna about our difficulty when he visited Dayarthi village last year. Later, he directed the MPDO to investigate and create estimates."

Rao has often urged the District Collector to go to their village and order the road's early completion so that the tribals won't have to deal with problems, but no actions have been taken yet.

Due to a shortage of roads, tribal people are forced to travel 7 to 15 kilometres on foot while pulling sick and pregnant people in 'dolis' to get to the closest road point where they can be transported in ambulances to hospitals.

Also Read: Gadkari Sets An Example, Says Sorry For Poor Construction Of Road In Madhya Pradesh