Tribal villagers in Minister Seethakka’s district build their own road after official apathy
Residents of Mutharam village in Mulugu district constructed a mud road themselves after decades of official neglect. Each family contributed Rs 2,000 to lay the road, appealing once again to Minister Seethakka to build a proper BT road
Mulugu: Fed up with the alleged negligent attitude of officials and elected representatives, residents of a tribal village in Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Seethakka’s native district of Mulugu have taken up the construction of a road on their own.
The residents of Mutharam village under Alubaka gram panchayat in Venkatapuram mandal have contributed money to lay a mud road and build a culvert to connect their village to the highway, located about four kilometres away.
The road leading to Mutharam and Seetharampuram villages, which fall under the Bhadrachalam Assembly constituency, was filled with boulders and had become impassable. With around 150 families residing in the village, each family contributed Rs. 2,000 from their meagre earnings as labourers to fund the roadwork.
As the road had become unfit even for walking or for two-wheelers, the villagers decided to take up the construction voluntarily. They hired tractors and other construction equipment and undertook ‘shramadanam’ to lay the road.
Speaking to Telangana Today, a villager, Thati Rambabu, said that despite submitting multiple petitions to ITDA officials and MLAs, the problem had remained unresolved for the past forty years.
He said they had recently submitted another petition to Bhadrachalam MLA Dr. Tellam Venkat Rao, but it too yielded no results. “In every election, politicians promise to build a road to our village but forget their assurances after coming to power,” he lamented.
Revathi, a woman from the village, said that if someone falls ill, it becomes extremely difficult to transport them to the hospital as ambulances cannot pass through the stone-laden road. “Pregnant women are carried using a doli made of a cot,” she added.
The villagers have appealed to the authorities and Minister Seethakka to address their long-pending grievance and take up the construction of a proper BT road in place of the existing mud road.
