A journey to the island villages located along the sea coast in Nagayalanka mandal is a disappointing experience. Thousands of fishermen families here suffer due to poor infrastructure in their hamlets. Their dream connectivity from Etimoga to Edurumondi and finally to Elichetla Dibba is long pending.
“Our villages are located between the Krishna river and the Bay of Bengal and we rely either on a ‘pant’ or boats to cross the river. During cyclones the inclement weather worsens the situation as we are forced to stay indoors,” say the fishermen.
Thousands of families have been eking out their livelihood by fishing for last few decades. The successive governments remained indifferent to the dire need of constructing a bridge on the river, lay approach roads and provide other facilities in the inaccessible villages. Public representatives and bureaucrats also shy away from visiting these hamlets, rues the fishermen community.
“The village is surrounded by the Krishna river on three sides and the sea on the fourth. We have been urging the officials to construct a bridge across the river to connect Etimoga and the island villages, but to no avail,” says a villager Saikam Manmada Rao.
Health hazard
“There is no Primary Health Centre (PHC), a high school, a cyclone rehabilitation centre or proper drinking water supply scheme in our village. Consumption of ground water poses a serious health hazard with the contamination of seawater. Frequent interruptions in power supply have added to our woes. We get power from Mrutyunjaya Palem village located in Guntur district,” says P. Nageswara Rao, a fisherman of Edurumondi village.
“Schoolteachers posted in the village do not stay put locally in the absence of basic amenities,” says former Nachugunta sarpanch Vasantha Rao.
