Basic issues concerning the poor have taken a backseat in the last four years in rural areas of Telangana as elected representatives could devote little time to address the problems during their term.
Neglect of issues like social security pensions, drinking water, drains, streetlights and scarcity of fertilisers is haunting many sitting legislators and MPs now. “We know they were caught up in Telangana movement, but they could have taken out some time and visited us,” felt one Raju, a farmer from Dharmaram of Mirdoddi mandal in Medak district.
Leave alone addressing grievances, efforts were not even made to resolve issues that needed a little push to arrive at solution. For instance, the problem of drinking water at Tadwai, a mandal headquarter near Kamareddy in Nizamabad district, could have been addressed effectively by fixing a higher capacity motor to pump larger quantity of water.
“Nobody cared about our problems despite approaching leaders at different levels. Women are forced to draw water from an open well most of the days as the water pumped into overhead tank is insufficient,” Venkatalaxmamma, a 60-year-old woman, said while fetching water from the well.
The situation is no different in Mustapur hamlet of Lingampet mandal. “I have spent about Rs. 4,000 on visiting Lingampet and Nizamabad for getting old-age/widow pension sanctioned for the last four years including attending Rachabanda programmes, but nothing happened,” P. Pedda Laxmi, a 65-year-old widow said.
The habitation is also plagued by problems like drinking water, internal roads and drains.
“Our repeated requests to field assistants to ensure proper daily wage under the MGNREGS have fallen on deaf ears as we continue to get less than Rs. 100 a day,” Raju, a Dalit daily-wage worker said.
During a recent visit by The Hindu to Medak and Nizamabad districts, roads were found to be in a very bad shape.
“The potholed road to Narayanakhed, the native of our MP and MLA (Suresh Shetkar and P. Kishta Reddy), explains their ‘effort’ to address the problems,” Pochaiah, a trader from Nizampet, noted.
