“No ambulance or autorickshaw comes to our thanda and every time a person is seriously sick we are forced to plead four or five persons to carry the sick on a cot to the nearest motorable road”. B. Talibai, a resident of Topyanaik thanda in Jharasangam mandal of Medak, sums up the plight of several tribal hamlets across Telangana.
Roads riddled with craters in agency areas including Polaram-Marrigudem road in Bhadrachalam division pose a serious health hazard to pregnant women and patients in need of emergency medicare, says Yellandu ZPTC member Chandra Aruna. The Roads and Buildings and Panchayat Raj roads in Nalgonda were swept away during heavy rains in October last, but the two departments are yet to take up repairs to most of the roads. At least a dozen medium-size bridges including the one at Thatikal village in Nalgonda were also damaged.
These are a few examples. Be it tribal-dominated Adilabad and Khammam districts or backward areas in Medak, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda or agriculturally rich Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Warangal, the story is the same.
A look at the road conditions in the rural areas of Telangana presents a pathetic picture of the suffering of the villagers and the lackadaisical attitude of the administration.
In Adilabad, the area under agriculture has doubled from 3.5 lakh hectares to over 7 lakh hectares in the last decade. However, it has not improved the economic condition of the milling poor, with poor rural roads being one of the main bottlenecks in their growth. Such roads are denying farmers of remote areas the access to markets resulting in their exploitation by middlemen and unscrupulous traders.
Official statistics indicate that half of over 10,000 km road network in Adilabad is in a dilapidated condition and about 80 per cent of it is unmotorable.
Summing up the situation Adilabad Superintending Engineer (PR) A. Uma Maheshwar Reddy reveals: “The government has not allocated funds for laying or relaying rural roads”.
Official apathy
In Warangal, roads in both rural and urban areas are in bad shape, thanks to the apathy of authorities. The R&B Department and municipal bodies blame each other for the pathetic situation. Of the total 2,400 km roads, nearly 400 km is stated to be in poor condition. “Though the VIPs move on the roads, somehow it misses their attention,” rued noted paediatrician Dr. Pingali Gopal.
As regards Medak district, several habitations under Narayanakhed, Zaheerabad and Narsapur Assembly constituencies are deprived of road connectively. A senior PR department official admitted that driving vehicles on the gravel and mud roads to about 220 habitations was “dangerous” during the monsoon. Roads in far-flung Jukkal constituency in Nizamabad present a perfect picture of neglect, even as the overall condition of roads in the district has improved to a large extent in the recent years.
The 25-km Maddelacheruvu-Kandharpally road connecting Banswada with Bichkunda remains a non-starter for years due to political reasons. The RTC is refusing to ply buses to many villages due to bad roads.
Plying of heavy vehicles and sand-laden lorries are taking a toll on the roads in Karimnagar district. The R&B authorities promised to complete the by-pass road along the shores of LMD reservoir, but in vain. Similarly, the Outer Ring Road around Karimnagar town remains on paper. The district administration has sought Rs. 180 crore from the government for laying/repairs of roads.
Heavy rains resulted in at least a dozen bridges including one at Thatikal in Nalgonda getting washed away but the R&B and PR departments have not taken up repairs. The rugged stretch of the road between Komararam and Marrigudem on the Yellendu-Gundala main road in Khammam continues to pose hurdles to vehicle users. The works taken up to develop the 54-km road between Yellendu and Gundala remains incomplete even four years after its commencement, she alleged, and blamed the government for not obtaining the forest clearance for a 17-km stretch of the road.
“We are in constant touch with the Revenue officials to identify suitable land to hand over the same to Forest Department for compensatory afforestation in lieu of 1.18 hectares of land required for the Yellendu-Gundala road,” says Dhanunjay, Superintending Engineer, Roads & Buildings, Kothagudem.
With reporting by S. Harpal Singh (Adilabad), G. Srinivasa Rao (Warangal), K.M. Dayashankar (Karimnagar), P. Ram Mohan (Nizamabad), R. Sridhar (Khammam), R. Avadhani (Sangareddy) and T. Karnakar Reddy (Nalgonda)
