Government merges 4 villages in Madhira, villagers voice objection to decision

Khammam: People of four villages which were merged in Madhira municipality have many reasons to object the decision made by the government. It is learnt that the after the upgradation of Madhira municiapality, the government had merged the neighbouring four village panchayats such as Ambaripeta, Jidugupadu, Yellandalpadu and Gummadupalli into Madhira.

The neighbouring village residents are now objecting to the decision made by the government and are demanding to remove the names of the villages from the Madhira municipality. It is reported that around 15000 people reside in these four villages and most of them are daily wage laborers. The people had benefits from the MNREGA scheme as being in a panchayat village but after the merge, the government had also removed the MNREGA scheme forcing the residents to live a hardship life.

It is said that even after the merging of four villages, the officials had completely ignored these villages and had failed to visit and carry out the works as per the municipality norms. The people allege that officials had complete ignored their villages and had they had to visit the Madhira municipality if any issue rises on sanitation and other problems. They also allege that the decision made by the government had hit them hard as most of them are living on daily wages and MNREGA scheme. They are of an opinion that they were happy with their villages having a panchayat rather than a municipality. The hapless people are demanding to retain the panchayats in their villages and remove the names of these villages from the municipality list.

Villagers said that they were forced to pay heavy taxes to the municipality for the development but still are ignored. It is believed that the villagers are having tough time with the sanitation issues as roads are filled with garbage. When asked about the municipal officials visiting the villages, they said that they had to wait for hours in Madhira municipality to register their problem and still no guarantee that the work will be done. They added that garbage was not their lone issue to be worried about and stated that the drainage works and power issues can be added.

P Venkataamma, a resident of one the four villages, demanded the government to immediately remove the village name from the municipality list. She added that people in the village are suffering more after it got merged in Madhhira municipality.

Another villager, K Parvathamma said that the villagers were forced to pay heavy taxes. She also appealed the government to retain the village as panchayat rather than merging it in Madhira municipality.