GUNTUR: ABOUT 50 families in Bodhanam in Bellamkonda in Guntur district are living anxious moments after moving to a hilltop near their village as it might be inundated by the backwaters of the Pulichintala project, which is receiving inflows following rainfall in the Krishna catchment, including Macherla, Gurazala and Dachepalli.
Though most families in villages that are facing submergence have been moved to places under a rehabilitation package, these families did not move out as they feared loss of livelihood. So now with the reservoir filling, they face the prospect of inundation of the village. The recent heavy rains have led to floods in upstream rivulets and streams like Paler, Edduvagu and Muneru resulting in heavy inflows into the Pulichintala project.
As the water level began rising in the reservoir, officials alerted local people and asked them to move out immediately. Though a majority of them have evacuated, a number of them headed to the hills nearby to wait out the flood. One of the villagers, Pillala Ramaiah, presently on the Bodhanam hilltop, told Express on the phone that he along with 10 shepherds were tending to 1,000 sheep on the hilltop. “There is no income I can get in the rehabilitation village. I have been raising a cotton crop on the four acres that I was provided under the rehabilitation package, but the recent floods damaged my fields,” he said.
The tehsildar of Bellamkonda mandal, I Eswar Reddy said all residents in the submerging villages were provided houses and lands in villages in other mandals. But refusing to vacate their existing village, 50 families are continuing cultivation and shepherding in Bodhanam. Due to submergence of the surrounding areas, the officials are flummoxed.
Under the Pulichintala project, 15 villages in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh and 14 villages in Nalgonda district of Telangana have been declared as submergence villages. A majority of them except eight in Bellamkonda mandal and a few hamlets in Guntur have been evacuated. All the oustees were paid compensation and rehabilitated.