Mahabubabad: Dornakal municipality in dire straits

Dornakal (Mahabubabad): With the advent of railways and the Christian missionary activities late in the 1800s, people started flock around Dornakal village which then was surrounded by thickets. The town which has the iconic centenary church, one of the dioceses of Church of South India, was also a centre for railway employees working with the steam locomotive shed. Dornakal, which was a town municipality from 1952, had become a Gram Panchayat in 1964 and municipality in 2018 with 15 wards.

The town lost its sheen after the Railways had abandoned the steam locomotive shed in 1989, thus necessitated relocation of a large number of employees to other places. As a result, the population of the town has also come down significantly. But for the iconic centenary church, there is not much to talk about Dornakal as it remained underdeveloped.

"The city offers a lot of scope for the politicians to make promises," T Venkanna, a vegetable vendor, said sarcastically, stating that the town had no infrastructure. He said that local youth had to go to Mahabubabad or Khammam for higher education. All the internal roads are congested and there was no proper maintenance of drainages, he said, referring to the need for park, dumping yards etc.

Setting up of an ITI college, vegetable market, weekly market, construction of mini tank bund etc are some of the major demands of the residents for decades. The locals have been demanding the government to set up a fire station for a long time.

With there are no industries around the town, the local youth have been migrating to Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Warangal and Khammam in search of employment, G Govind Naik, an unemployed youth, said.

Although the State government had sanctioned Rs 20 crore after it upgraded the town to municipality, the proposed works have come to a grinding halt midway. It's learnt that the contractors stopped the works as the government had failed to release the funds.

So far, the Congress and the Telegu Desam have dominated the town politics. However, this time around the ruling TRS is giving them a run for the money. Although the onus is on local MLA DS Redya Naik to ensure victory in Dornakal, it was also prestigious for the Minister for Tribal Welfare and Women Development Satyavathi Rathod.