The plight of tribal people living in the four mandals from Khammam district which were merged with East Godavari post-bifurcation remains unaddressed and for this, they are blaming not the bureaucrats of both the States, but the monitoring system which has failed in solving their grievances.
The adverse socio-economic indicators in these mandals have shown no upward trend.
As many as 13 pregnant women have died in these mandals in the last six months and the reason is being attributed to malnutrition, negligence of medical and neonatal care. “No ANM or MPHS is visiting the villages and providing medicines to pregnant women. No lady doctor is available in any of the PHCs in the four mandals,” alleged Nagamani, project coordinator of the Agriculture and Social Development Society (ASDS), a non-government organisation which is working for the welfare of tribal people here.
Another cause of concern is prevalence of anaemia in pregnant women and the drastic fall in the blood haemoglobin content.
According to Payam Jyothi, sarpanch of Abhicharla panchayat in Koonavaram mandal, lack of supervision by the ICDS officials and other monitoring staff is one of the reasons for the deaths of pregnant women.
Mr. V. Gandhibabu, Director of Agriculture and Social Development Society (ASDS) of Rekhapalli village in V.R. Puram mandal said that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was also in doldrums as 16,000 beneficiaries had been sitting idle for the last six months after the mandals were merged with Rampachodavaram division. They have to complete 100 more days work before March 31.
With the Assistant Project Director posts falling vacant, the budget is yet to be prepared, which needed to be approved before March 31. Further, minimum wage difference arrears of Rs.1.5 crore are yet to be paid to around 4,000 beneficiaries who have worked in the last season.
The mandals have also cut a sorry figure on education front. The mandals have 2,000 dropouts and 16 schools are yet to be opened. The students have not got their original SSC, PG certificates as the files need to be transferred to East Godavari from Khammam.
“The students are not getting scholarships too,” said Mr. Gandhibabu.
