The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Drought haunts Krishna tail-end villages

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 28, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Drought haunts Krishna tail-end villages

By M. Rajiv

With their wards leaving the village in search of employment, older people anxiously await their return at Amaravati village in Kalidindi mandal of Krishna district. -- Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar.

VIJAYAWADA, FEB. 27. Vast extent of parched lands, dried up tanks and scenes of people fetching water from whatever is remaining in the near-empty water sources is a common sight now in scores of villages spread in the tail-end areas of the Krishna river in Kaikaluru and Malleswaram Assembly constituencies of Krishna district.

Migration from the perennially drought-affected villages in some districts of the State is not new. But even before the onset of a `gruelling' summer, as the weather experts predict for this year, panic buttons have been pressed in some villages in the district where the word `drought' was never heard a few years ago.

The arrest of the flow of the Krishna from the upper reaches due to Alamatti dam and the Government's decision to `rationalise' the release of water as a precautionary measure have had a telling affect on the residents of the villages where migration has been rampant.

The once-lush green areas, which enjoyed three crops every year, wear a deserted look now. Over 40 per cent of the residents -- able-bodied men -- of Santoshapuram, Kottur, Amaravati, Mulalanka, Perupalem and other villages have gone in search of employment to places as far as Visakhapatnam and Nellore.

Wait form breadwinner

A stranger visiting these villages is greeted by old and infirm person, accompanied by younger ones, who are not yet grown up to take up works, waiting for the return of their breadwinners. "This is not new to us. This has been happening for the fourth year in a row," Dronadri Mangamma, a resident of Kottur, says.

Mangamma, who is awaiting the return of her son, approaches every vehicle that stops at her village with the fond hope of her son alighting one of them. The story of Venkayamma of the same village is not different. Venkayamma is waiting to see her husband who left the village a couple of months ago. "But for my young children, I would have also accompanied my husband for work," she says.

The villagers blame politicians for their plight. "No other crop, except paddy, grows here and officials are aware of this. But they did not release water for the second crop," Rama Rao, a resident of Amaravati village, says.

Competition for work

According to Rama Rao, the competition for employment in the neighbouring districts is so high that the workers are not getting even half the wages they normally get. "They used to pay anything between Rs. 50 to 60 per day. But with the availability of workers increasing every passing day, employers have cut down the wages to Rs.30 a day, but we have no other way but to oblige them," he said.

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