BALLARI: A huge Hanuman statue greets you at the entrance of the village followed by granaries and godowns. The same muddy road, hardly 500 mts from the main road, connects to this scenic village, which has beautiful houses with good greenery for a dryland region. Welcome to Krishnanagar camp, a place near Ballari.These settlers from Andhra Pradesh have built their village from scratch when they saw not much government help forthcoming.
Forty years ago, the people of this tiny village with a population of about 3,000 were residents of either East or West Godavari district of the then undivided Andhra Pradesh. They sold everything there and came down to settle here, to cultivate paddy. “We had land, but there was no water. Then came the Tungabhadra dam. This was a better prospect. We bought land and settled down here,” says Balaram Maddukuri, a resident.
“K Ramachandra was the first one to come here. He purchased 15 acres of land and settled here. Then I came here. We both are from Thadepalligudem in West Godavari district. I purchased 18 acres of land. The land was cheap. By selling one acre of land over there, we could purchase four acres here,” says Dhananjay Maddukuri, father of Balaram, who came to this place in early 1970s.
They were followed by many others and their number swelled as they settled near Ballari, where a high level canal of Tungabhadra passed through. Their caravan from AP, like the ancient migrants who settled on river banks, included their cattle. The cross-bred Murrah buffaloes and their own Ongole cattle later on became their main source of livelihood.
“The troubles of migration began from here. We came with a tag of ‘people from Andhra Pradesh’ and we have remained so, even today after forty years. We have been making several trips to the government seeking to get Revenue village tag to our camp, but it has still remained a dream,” says Santosh Venkatesh Rao. Dominated by the Kamma community, an upper caste in the neighbouring state, these people of Krishnanagar spent day after day with no facilities and ignored by the government.
For any village, the bare minimum necessity is drinking water, roads, drainage, garbage disposal and graveyard. “Even the most backward village has these facilities but we lacked even them. The government did not help us get even a graveyard. Then the village elders met and decided to create the facilities on our own,” explains Balaram.With the first requirement being the water, the villagers began constructing a lake. “ We pooled in money required for the land to construct the lake. Our population was less then. We bought 25 cents of land, that is one-fuorth of an acre. After a few years, we increased it to one acre and the same extended by two and a half acres and now the lake stands on a four- acre plot,” the villagers explain.
Pointing out that this man-made water body caters to drinking and other necessities, Balaram says, “Every human being needs 30 litres of water every day and animals need 150 litres. We have more than 2,500 heads of cattle.”The villagers are now planning to expand the lake area by two more acres.
Stating that even the drinking water facility for the village has been a combined effort of the villagers, Balaram says they set up a reverse osmosis plant all by themselves. “We set up a society called Sri Krishnadevaraya Farmers Welfare Society. With assistance from NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development), we availed a loan of `2.65 lakh to set up the plant. We filter about 2,000 litres of water every day, which is sold at a price of `5 per can. We sell nearly 100 cans daily. During summer, we sell 150 cans.”
This agrarian-based village specialises in dairy activities and has also constructed a granary. Though the village is represented by a gram panchayat member, the grant for development has been elusive. “We are tired of running from pillar to post seeking grants. We are now used to doing everything on our own,“ says Prasad Ganapathi, president of Krishnanagar Dairy Society.
The village has some of the best cattle known for its quality milk and high yield. Though the Karnataka Milk Federation procures milk from the farmers here, the villagers have set up their own society and a chilling centre with a capacity of 3,000 litres. “On an average, we produce 2,000 litres of milk every day,” says Ram Babu, secretary of the society.
The story does not end here. The villagers were thrilled when the first single lane black top road construction began a couple of years ago. But it did not go beyond 200 metres. The same road still stands as an example of government apathy. The villagers say nobody knows why it was stopped abruptly.Worse, the village did not have even a graveyard. When the government did not respond to their plea for one, they purchased land for the graveyard, which is about 1km from the village.Amidst all this, the villagers appear to be not tired of waiting ‘for deliverance’ as they love their village. The reason is clear when they say, “We might have done some good work in our past life, because we are lucky that we are drinking the water of river Tungabhadra.”
Govt project and disappointment
The villagers’ joy knew no bounds when a water treatment plant and water purifying plant were sanctioned to their village. The villagers were told to shell out 10% of the total project cost. “We pooled in K3.8 lakh for the K38 crore projects. As per the project, the water was to be pumped into these pits and filtered and supplied to the villages,” says Balaram. But the project has been abandoned now with weeds growing in these pits and the plant rusting.
The half story of electrification
The only basic facility which the government granted is electricity. The village was electrified 30 years ago, but the system augmentation like replacing the electric poles, power lines and transformers has remained a far cry and the service has remained a dream.
Prompt tax payers
The villagers have been promptly paying their taxes every year, and the electricity bills.
Temples in 4 corners
Four temples in four corners dedicated to Rama, Krishna, Durga and Hanuman are constructed by the villagers themselves.