Tribals stage protest for basic amenities

Rampachodavaram (ASR District): Adivasis staged a protest march for 4 kms half-naked with Dolis and wearing leafy hats, demanding basic facilities like Anganwadi Centre, school and road. This protest march reached Jajula Bandha village from Arla village. Villages in Rolugunta and Koyyuru mandals are on the border of Alluri Sitaramaraju and Anakapalli districts.

Tribals residing in Pedda Garuvu, Pitru Gedda, Arla and Jajula Bandha villages of these mandals are facing severe hardships due to a lack of basic facilities. After the demonstration, they staged a dharna at Jajula Bandha village. They held this agitation on the eve of Adivasi Day on August 9.

They demanded that governments that are organising various programmes on a large scale called Adivasi Day should take note of their hardship and provide infrastructure. The tribals of the four villages on the top of the hill are living away from basic facilities like Anganwadi centre, primary school, and drinking water.

Marri Venkata Rao, the village head of Jajula Banda, said that their villages are located on a high hill and around 400 families live there. K Govind Rao, District Honorary President of the 5th Schedule Sadhana Committee of Andhra Pradesh Tribal Association, who led the agitation, said that there are 85 children in the age group of 0-14 years in these villages, and they have to go 4 kms away for Anganwadi centre or school.

The tribals of these villages have to travel 20 kms to Bonkula Palem village to get ration goods. He said that there is also an 8-km-long hilly road in the middle of this. Tribals said they had no other option but to carry fever patients and pregnant women on Dolis to the hospital in Arla village.

Korra Subbarao and Kilo Narasaiah from Pitrigadda and Pedda Guru villages stated that the purpose of this agitation is to tell the government and officials to recognize them as human beings.

They said that they had collected Rs 2,000 from every house in their villages and built a six-km-long road, but in the meantime, it was washed away by the rains. They lamented that no matter how many times they appealed to the ITDA PO for roads to their villages where there is no way to walk, even gravel roads were not granted.