Residents of Basar, the temple town in Adilabad district, and its peripheral areas, launched a movement demanding merger of their areas in Nizamabad district by making Basar the mandal headquarters.
All political parties, including the ruling party, formed a joint action committee and resolved to agitate till their demand is met. As part of their long-drawn struggle, they staged ‘rasta roko’ on the Basar-Nizamabad-Nirmal road on Sunday, resulting in obstruction to the movement of vehicular traffic for a brief period.
They argue that their demand is genuine as there are approximately 170 km. away from the district headquarters, Adilabad, and 80 km., from the revenue divisional town of Nirmal.
“Our area is very closer to Nizamabad (30 km.,) and we largely depend on this town for educational and health services. We have been going to Nizamabad Agriculture Marketyard to sell our farm produce for quite a long time now,” says Laxman Rao, Ex-MPP, Muthole, who is leading the agitation.
“Nizamabad is most convenient for all our needs. Since the Government has got down on division of mandals and districts, this is the right time to do justice to people of this area to avoid hurdles in administration,” says Shyam Sundar, an MPTC member. Some of them are of the opinion that if the entire Muthole constituency is merged in the district it could be even better, but others in the agitation have not endorsed the argument.
Adilabad district is separated from this district by the Godavari and immediately after the bridge across the river, the former starts. Basar, the abode of Goddess of Wisdom, Saraswati, is located on the bank of the river, 30 km., northwest to Nizamabad. “It takes a full day for us to reach Adilabad town, and travel is very cumbersome,” says Kishore, the JAC member.
Former Irrigation Minister P. Sudarshan Reddy, who belongs to Navipet mandal, just adjacent to Basar, says the town is frequented by thousands of devotees everyday and they invariably stay here to reach Basar as it has no required facilities. Moreover, many hotels, lodges and businesses there are owned by people from Nizamabad.
Nizamabad is well connected by rail and road and people can reach the town within 30 minutes from Basar. A large majority of people of Basar and neighbouring villages would be very happy if their area is merged in the district, he adds.
