80 yr wait for 1km road in forest land

Nellore: Even after the Ministry of Environment and Forests had submitted to the Supreme Court for starting road projects in non-forest areas without obtaining clearances from the ministry, still villages in the district are having no road connectivity even though they were being used for many decades. There has been no action by the state government and district administration to address such woes by laying roads for convenience of rural population.

Highlights:

• A small stretch of one km at Padsonpet has been giving nightmarish experience to more than 15 villages
• In 2013, MoEF gave nod for district-level forest officials to allow laying of roads in reserve forest area

One classic example is that villagers of Padsonpet are facing difficulties as the officials yet to lay 1 km road in the reserve forest area. The village is also known as Maratein village under Pedaputtedu panchayat in Dagadarthi mandal. Just because of the area, more than 15 villages have been facing inconvenience during severe rains and monsoon time even for transportation to the hospital, school and for shifting agriculture produces.

There are two connecting roads between Buchireddipalem and Dagadarthi in the district and many villages fall on the route via Ramachandrapuram.

From this village, another branch road via Padsonpet or Maratein village exists and there is stretch of forest area of 360 acres spreading over one kilometre along the road that ends just before the village. Even though, the village was formed during 1934, no government had tried to put an end to the difficulty of the villagers where they were facing troubles with no road for one kilometre which literally turns into a mud-pond during monsoon.

People from both Dagadarthi and Buchireddipalem mandals have to cross this road because of short cut route and were facing trouble for reaching mandal headquarters for any work. Even politicos were simply saying about strict rules of the Ministry of Environment and Forests expressing their inability to tackle the issue.

Sources said there are 24 such villages in the district where people have been facing hardships. Freshly, villagers of Padsonpet have approached the district administration on Monday and submitted their latest representation to the government. There is a metal road for one kilometre till the forest area and again BT road starts from the village where the forest boundary ends.

“We are basically working class and rely on farming activity. There are 1,500 acres of fertile lands where villagers cultivate paddy. We have to face problem for shifting the produce during rainy season where there is no road for more than one kilometre. Children also face difficulty for reaching schools,” said G Leelamma, anganwadi teacher of Padsonpet.

As a matter of fact, district officials from the Forest and Revenue departments can permit the road as the MoEF expressed its nod for excluding such road projects when a writ was filed by the National Highways Authority of India in 2013. Still, many villages on the road are eagerly waiting for a small stretch of BT road that gives comfortable travel.

“We met the District Collector on Monday and submitted our representation. We don’t wait for some more time and take a decision to lay our own road with Swachh Bharat spirit,” said A Prasanna Kumar of the village. DFO (Territorial Forests) Pithani Ramamohan Rao said the user agencies forward the proposals to the government for conversion process. They have limited role in the process of proposals at district-level, he added.

By P V Prasad