People of Bhatlapenumarru, the native village of national tri-colour flag designer Pingali Venkayya, are unhappy over the failure of the Central and the State governments to make the village into a heritage site.
Except a flexi print of a picture dated March 31, 1921, in which Mr. Venkayya was seen walking with Mahatma Gandhi, and a statue installed in 1998, the village didn’t have any memory of the patriot till date.
Visitors to the village has to return with great disappointment as the Pingali Venkayya Bhavan and local primary school where he studied are still trying to collect memorabilia of the freedom fighter.
“When the government is not interested in coming up with any memorial for Pingali Venkayya in our village for decades in respect of his contribution to the nation, we collected funds and built Pingali Venkayya Bhavan,” one of the architects of the bhavan told The Hindu , seeking anonymity.
The bhavan has turned into a house of photos of the donors, instead of life-cycle of Mr. Venkayya.
“We are requesting the government to come and help us in developing a memorial, housing all kinds of available literature on Mr. Venkayya. We are even ready to spare a portion for it in the bhavan,” said a village elder Dr. Gottipati Siva Ramakrishna.
Villagers complained that the Kuchipudi-Vuyyuru road via Bhatlapenumarru village is still crying for repairs.”, added Mr. Ramakrishna.
