“We will develop Jodeghat as a tourism centre with an outlay of Rs. 100 crore,” Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who was then leading the separate Telangana movement as president of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), had promised on October 26, 2007 when he visited Jodeghat village where the legendary Gond rebel, Kumram Bheem, attained martyrdom in 1940.
Leave alone development of the remote village in Kerameri mandal of the district, the 22 km of sanctioned road leading to it through the hilly tribal heartland has also not been laid as it necessitates clearing forest. This is a peculiar situation as the Forest Minister, Jogu Ramanna, hails from the district.
The road on a 13-km stretch between Babejhari and Jodeghat at an outlay of Rs. 4.5 crore was sanctioned last year, but its work was suspended midway as the Forest Department did not give mandatory clearance. The government or the Forest Minister in particular, had since done nothing to restart the work which has facilitated access to 14 villages on either side of the road, a task that is difficult even for health officials.
The necessity for a proper road linking Hatti base camp and remote Jodeghat cannot be stressed upon more as a few thousand Gond adivasis and others visit the place to pay homage to the iconic Kumram Bheem every year on his martyrdom anniversary which usually falls in mid October.
Since 1988, the Integrated Tribal Development Agency, Utnoor, has been organising the event on a large scale and the movement vehicles, both government and private, has increased manifold.
The road works were suspended many times since the last three decades owing to Naxalite problem.
The tribal population in this area had come out in support of the TRS in the hope that their hardships will end if the party comes to power. “Our hopes seem to go belied,” observes a crestfallen Atram Chinna Bheemu of Chinna Patnapur village, as he looks at the distant sky.
