Konda Reddi tribals fall by wayside in new Telangana State

Kothagudem: Very often Konda Reddi people visit the government offices seeking basic facilities in their villages. They urge the government official during Darbar and other meeting at the Integrated Tribal Welfare Department Office to develop their villages but their pleas fall on deaf ears of babus. 

Since the government officials are not solving their problems, they conveyed their agony and pain to the people through media. Konda Reddis are tribal hill caste people living in Bhadradri Kothagudem district. As many as 1,016 families are living in two mandals of Aswarao Pet and Dhamma Pet.  In those 346 families, there are 510 men and 506 women.  

These families are living in various panchayats of Sudha Gothula Gumpu, Nadimi Reddi Gudem, Reddi Gudem, Bandaru Gumpu, Kotha Kannaiah Gudem villages and other  villages in Aswarao Pet Mandal. Some families are also living in Dhamma Pet mandal villages and Anakma Palem Grama panchayat limits.

According to them, they have been living these villages for ages but the governments totally neglected them and hardly did any development works.  Even after the formation of Telangana State, their condition did not change.  They said that the government did not build houses for them in their villages.  They are living in the same old rundown houses which were constructed some 30 years ago. 

After the TRS government launched the two bedroom house scheme for the poor, they urged the officials to construct houses for them. But they constructed only 20 houses in Gopgupude village. Not only that, these people are still waiting for the Patta passbooks for their Podu lands.  They only depend on the Podu lands for their survival but the government has not given even a single patta to their lands.

Now, they demand the government to give the Podu land pattas and provide the input subsidy under the Rythu Bandhu scheme. As far as education is concern, not a single person has studied beyond high school among the 1,016 family members.  They stoptheir education in Intermediate.

In the united Andra Pradesh, 90 per cent Konda Reddi families were living in Khammam district.  After the bifurcation of the State, 80 per cent of them were separated and are now living in Andra Prades as their mandals merged with Polavaram in East Godavari  district in Kunavaram, Chintoor, and VR Puram mandals.  The remaining ten percent of the people are living the in Bhadradri- Kothagudem district of Telangana. 

For that 10 per cent Konda Reddi people who are living under the ITDA Bhadrachalam, the officers had proposed Rs. 5 crore in the budget for the development of the minimum facilities in their villages.  But the government sanctioned only Rs. 17 lakh for the development of the people.  

This shows how the government worked for development of the Konda Reddis, said Kodareddis Sangam president Murla Ramesh Reddi.  He appealed to the government to release the funds for the development of the villages and give the minimum facilities in their villages. He urged the government to build the connecting roads to the villages for smooth transport. 

He also demanded the government to construct double bedroom houses immediately to all families living in the two mandals and implement the RBS scheme for their Podu lands. Murla Ramesh Reddi appreciated the government for providing the KCR kits to their families but added that nothing sufficient if are no good roads and drinking water facilities in the villages.