Wait for money that never comes...

Medak: Draped in an orange saree, clinging her bright yellow bag, Odde Yellamma has been waiting yet again in front of the Mandal Praja Parishad office at Medak. A wait that started with the 70-year-old’s dream of owning a house.

Hoping she would get some financial help from the government under Indiramma Housing Scheme, she constructed four rooms by borrowing and spending more than Rs 3 lakh ten years ago. But only received Rs 3,000 when the basement was raised, 20 bags of cement and additional Rs 6,000 after constructing the walls.

she went to the then District Collectorate at Sangareddy, but she was told by the officials that Rs 36,000 bill for constructing slab was showing as ‘paid’ in records and that nothing was left to be paid to her. Flabbergasted by the official’s response, her agony had no voice; there was little she could do. Ten years later, situation is no different though the State has been through vast change; formation of Telangana, reorganisation of districts and formation of new mandals.

She had constructed an Individual Household Latrine (IHHL) and is once again making rounds in Mandal Praja Parishad office at Medak, as MPDO office is yet to be setup in Haveli Ghanpur- more than three months after districts’ reorganisation. This time around, she is waiting for Rs 12,000 which was supposed to be reimbursed into her account for construction of IHHL as part of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Though some people in her village had received the amount, she is yet to be paid. According to P Rambabu, MPDO, Medak, funds for IHHLs were still awaited and that was the reason for delay in payment.

“I had to put my pusthela thadu (sacred marriage gold chain) to take hand loan for construction of the toilet. If we get the money we can survive through the summer,” she said, as she waited to meet mandal officials at MPDO office in Medak on Thursday. Yellamma, who owns three acres of land which is totally dependent on rains for cultivation, has to depend on labour work for survival.

Incidentally, she, along with more than 50 workers from the village, had worked for eight days last year during Haritha Haram Phase-II, digging pits and planting saplings (Rs 20 per pit). Right after the plantation the field assistant of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in her village passed away. The workers have not received any payment for the laborious work that they put in till date.

By Vivek Bhoomi