Reaching district headquarters, a Herculean task for tribals

Rampachodavaram(ASR dist): Tribals of Rampachodavaram and Chinturu area are facing severe difficulty in reaching the district headquarters located at Paderu. This inconvenience being experienced by the tribals is giving room for the demand to establish a tribal district with headquarters at Rampachodavaram.

Tribals in the Chinturu or Yetapaka mandals have to pay around Rs 600 towards bus fare to go and return from Paderu, their district headquarters. Overnight stay and spending time for 36 hours is necessary now. Money should be spent on at least two meals and breakfast. There is no direct bus. The journey on the rugged roads between hills, valleys and forests is so tiring.

Such is the plight of the tribals of the villages under the Rampachodavaram revenue division in the newly formed Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) district. It is now felt that the government, which merged the tribal areas and formed a separate tribal district with good intentions, has at the same time ignored the hardship faced by the tribals. Reaching the State capital Amaravati is much easier for these tribals than reaching their district headquarters Paderu, in terms of both cost and time. This is true, though surprising to hear. Before the formation of Alluri Sitharama Raju district, people from 11 zones of the Rampachodavaram revenue division had to go to Kakinada for the Collectorate. The tribals of Chinturu had to travel about 150 km to reach Kakinada. This was the situation then. The State government has now reorganised the districts under the slogan of administrative decentralisation. Its purpose is to bring governance closer to the people. But now the people of Chinturu have to travel over 200 km to reach the District Collectorate at Paderu. The villagers of Yetapaka have to travel about 275 km to reach Paderu.

"If there is any problem, people can report the same at the District Collector's office. If going to the Collectorate itself becomes a big difficulty, then to whom should they tell," questions Pallala Rajkumar Reddy, TNSF State vice-president.

Alluri Sitharama Raju district was formed by merging both Rampachodavaram revenue division and Paderu revenue division. Answering a query on the tribals problem, Rampachodavaram MLA N Dhanalakshmi said, "It is true that people are facing problems to go to Paderu. However, after assessing the situation, the government started a direct bus from Rampachodavaram to Paderu to solve the problem."

But people do not accept this. They want a permanent solution. Many locals say the problem will be solved with the formation of a tribal district centred at Rampachodavaram. The local leaders of the ruling party are also in favour of the proposal. Many are demanding that Rampachodavaram should be made a tribal district along with 11 tribal zones under the Rampachodavaram revenue division as well as the Polavaram area.

"Rulers are talking about airbus in district centres. But not even proper red buses are found in our district. Not even a single bus depot is present in these 11 mandals of the Rampachodavaram division. Damaged buses are being dumped in the Agency area. The recent breakage of the axle of an RTC bus on Gurthedu Road is a clear example," said Balu Akkisa, president, Rights Watch.

"It takes 9 hours to travel from our village to Paderu Collectorate. If the authorities concerned are not available on the day, we will have to stay there another day. Can't even say how much it will cost in such situations. Hilly and forest area, we are suffering a lot," lamented Ch Venkatrayudu, village youth, Devipatnam.