Date:05/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/05/stories/2007070552700400.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Cut off from the rest of civilisation

Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao

Over half a dozen villages in Warangal district scattered in the thick forest lack basic medical facilities

Photo: M. Murali

Long walk: P Rajitha on her way to Eturunagaram from Kondai village along with her mother and relatives.

ETURUNAGARAM (WARANGAL DT): Twenty-year-old P Rajitha of Kondai, a hamlet in this forest mandal, walked all the way to Shapelli for 12 km, took rest overnight and began walking towards Chinnaboinapally the next day. In all, she had to walk 17 km to realise the dream of having a safe delivery a few days from now.

Accompanied by her mother and other relatives, Rajitha decided to hire a room at Eturunagaram mandal headquarters for her delivery. Not just Kondai, but over half a dozen hamlets – Ilapur, Dodla, Malyala, Shapelli and other small hamlets - scattered in the thick forest do not have minimum medical facilities. As a result, one can see scores of people walking for long distances with their children on their shoulders down with fever and other ailments. The elderly are no exception. They are either carried in swings or forced to walk till their energy lasts.

Rivulets

From Chinnaboinapalli to Ilapur, there are about two rivulets that pass across – Jampanna vagu and Vattivagu. They overflow and as a result the villages remain cut off from the mainstream all through the rainy season. People, mostly tribals, have been requesting the authorities to build two culverts, but, their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

Eighty-year-old Kaka Buchamma said she had been walking the same road since her childhood. Over four decades, the mud road was transformed into a gravel stretch but not fully motorable. The ITDA officials felled some branches and laid them across the flowing rivulets, but they were washed away in the first rain this season.

“I have been listening to people say they will build bridges across the rivulets. But nothing has happened till now,” she told The Hindu.

Recent construction

There are more than 30 culverts on the 40-km stretch from Eturunagaram to Tupakulagudem on the banks of river Godavari. After decades of negligence, they were all constructed after work on Devadula project was taken up to enable the engineers and workers reach the place of work.

The residents of Kondai, Dodla, Malyala, Ilapur and other hamlets opine that their road was equally important since they are in dire need of access to health and education.