Signing the Immigration and National Act of 1965, the 36th President of the US, Lyndon B. Johnson said their land flourished because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and people.
Telangana has been no different with people from various parts of country and the world making it their home over the years. In the same way, two dozen families which migrated from Vishakapatnam district about 60 years ago to work on Nagarjunasagar dam, had built a village for themselves in Chandampet mandal in Nalgonda district and named it Vizag Colony.
The residents of Vizag Colony, a hamlet under Chinna Munigal Grama Panchyat, are from Pedda Teenaarla, Bangarupalem and a couple of other villages of Nakkalapalli mandal. They had migrated to Nagarjunasagar in the early 1950s when work on the construction of the masonry dam had begun.
ADVERTISEMENT
Since most of these families belong to the fishermen community, they started fishing in the reservoir on completion of dam work. Since the backwaters of the project were located in the forest area, the fishermen choose hilly terrain and built a village for themselves.
Since then the population of the colony has increased to 1,000 and the number of voters now stands at 618. Only about dozen people, those who actually migrated, are alive today and the rest were born and brought up here.
Cordial relationsADVERTISEMENT
The villagers have been maintaining cordial relations with local people and a person from this village -- Ch. Devudu -- was also elected Sarpanch of Chinna Munigal seven years ago. Speaking to The Hindu , Y. Appa Rao (65), said their families had migrated to Nagarjunasagar when he was an infant. All his children and grandchildren were born here and have become part of Telangana. “We had deep connections with the reservoir since they came here to work as a labourer on the project and now fishing is the main activity of each and every family in the village,” he said.
Interestingly, these villagers still maintains marital relations with people from Nakkalapalli and other parts of Andhra Pradesh. Since people living in neighbouring villages do not belong to their community, Mr. Appa Rao said they were forced to go all the way to Vishakpatnam and other places for matchmaking. The villagers have been actively participating in all the programmes taken up by the government here. It stood at top in the Haritha Haram plantation programme and also appointed two volunteers at its own expense to run the local government school as the local school did not have sufficient staff.
The local tribal persons were largely dependent on agriculture and cattle rearing but now have taken to fishing, motivated by Vizag Colony people.
They export fish to Kolkata, Kerala, Hyderabad and Devarakonda and other places. When asked about the division of the State, Mr. Devudu said he said it had no impact on them.