Puttamrajuvari Kandriga is a far-flung habitation in Nellore district that was adopted by cricket star Sachin Tendulkar in October 2014. Ever since then, things have started moving for the 1,895 villagers with local officials taking interest in development works. Tendulkar visited the hamlet on November 16 last year.
Today, the village has cement concrete roads, footpaths, drainage, electricity, drinking water supply, sanitation, a community hall, a school and a sports ground.
And now Puttamraju Kandriga has captured the attention of the Union Ministry of Rural Development as an example of what can happen when villages are adopted by MPs and VIPs under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.
The village was one three such adopted villages selected from nearly 300 nationally.
Documentary
The ministry has commissioned a documentary on the development work done in P. Kandriga with the Rs. 6 crore contributed partly by the district administration and by Tendulkar. The six-minute documentary was shown at a workshop in Bhopal recently in which NGOs, rural development officials and State Ministers took part.
Said Joint Collector A. Md. Imtiaz, who is in charge of the work in P. Kandriga and attended that workshop, “We set up a stall showcasing the work done in the village. In my presentation, I told them how holistic development was achieved by focusing on field work.”
Presentation
Mr. Imtiaz said several departments worked together to transform P. Kandriga. The village had no electricity, so the AP Southern Power Distribution Company Ltd hurried to set up an 11 KV feeder, spending Rs. 1.74 lakh in the process.
The village now has 24-hour power supply.
A community centre with RCC roofing was built with Rs 1.15 crore and an anganwadi school building at a cost of Rs. 9 lakh. The funds for this were drawn from Tendulkar’s MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS).
Similarly, an amount of Rs. 74 lakh was spent to construct a government school building with a 3-acre playground.
The premises are secured by a compound wall.
After adotpion by Sachin Tendulkar, Puttamrajuvari Kandriga has 24-hour power supply, a school with a playground, cement concrete roads, drainage, community hall
