Tribals stage protest, demand roads

Paderu (ASR District) : People of various tribal villages staged dharna on Friday holding placards with press reports in front of the ITDA project office demanding commencement of works of the Y-Junction road from Chatakamba in Anantagiri mandal of Alluri Sitarama Raju district immediately. They demanded sanction of roads from Madrebu to Sariya, and Burugu to Vanija.

CPM district executive member K Govinda Rao, representatives of various villages S Sanyasi Rao, Pandavula Bachanna, Satya Rao, Somila Appala Raju, and others led the agitation.

They said that 300 families performed Sramadanam for two months and constructed 13-km-long unpaved (Kacha) road to connect 12 villages in Pinakota, Peddakota, and Keverla panchayats of Anantgiri mandal in 2019-20.

The then district collector of Visakhapatnam sanctioned Rs 20 crore to build a BT road on this and the then ITDA PO Venkateshwarlu sanctioned Rs 81 lakh from the ITDA funds for additional work. However, the villagers alleged that false bills were created for the road from Chatkamba to Y Junction Bonur in five sections at a cost of Rs 25.62 lakh. But the road works were not done here. CPM leader Govinda Rao said that the work was stopped due to lack of permission from the forest authorities.

The agitators submitted a petition to the district collector and ITDA PO and explained the problems.