VISAKHAPATNAM: Seventy-four years after Indian Independence, three villages in G Madugula mandal agency area here got power connection, bringing cheer to about 450 people from 90 families belonging to the Kondu community, falling under the primitive tribal group.
Residents of Neredi Banda, Jajula Banda and Ramachandrapuram hilltop hamlets had been living without power connection as the villages did not figure in revenue records, making them ineligible for funds. “We did not have televisions until today. Though we have bought mobile phones, we had been forced to trek several kilometres to charge them,” a senior from Neredi Banda village,Killo Potti Dora, told TNIE. Most of the families had migrated to these villages two to three decades ago, and had been living without power supply. “We had to complete our daily chores before sunset,’’ another villager Simhachalam said. Apart from electricity, these villages lack drinking water and road facilities.
Simhachalam added that after the Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC) stopped supplying kerosene, they were depending on edible oil for both lighting lamps and cooking. “For functions such as marriages, we hire generators,’’ he said. “The situation was such that no one came forward to marry our children since there was no power supply in the village,’’ Dora said, adding that several protest rallies were taken out in Visakhapatnam, demanding power connection.
Once the authorities approved the demand, the villagers chipped in to draw power lines to their hamlets. “About 300 villagers toiled for a month to erect electric poles to draw cables to the villages,’’ the villagers said, adding that the authorities should consider paying them for the work.
Village heads Tambelu Venkata Rao, Lakshanalu, Korea Chalapatirao and Lakshmana Rao formally inaugurated the power supply in the presence of electricity official T Ramana and honorary president of 5th Schedule Sadhana Committee K Govinda Rao. The village heads thanked district collector A Mallikharjun and ITDA PO R Gopalakrishna for bringing power to their hamlets. Rao said since the villages were not in revenue records, funds could not be released for any development works. “After villagers were given Aadhaar cards three months ago, the authorities processed the electrification proposal,’’ he said.