The double-lane road being laid between Hatti and Jodeghat village, where Raj Gond leader Kumram Bheem was martyred in a fight with the armed forces of the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1940, is more likely to be a bane to the Adivasis than a boon. The government’s ‘generosity’ in laying a 7 m wide road for the tribal inhabitants of the 14 villages on either side of the 22 km long road would actually be of more use to the resourceful non-tribals in the present circumstances.
The less than one year old single lane black-top road, which was more than convenient for the 300 ethnic tribal families to reach the mandal headquarters Kerameri or any other place in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district, was done away with. The road, which was laid at a cost of about ₹6 crore, is being replaced with the wider one which costs the exchequer nearly ₹16 crore.
The double-lane black top carriageway forms part of the assurances given by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao during his visit to Jodeghat to participate in the martyrdom anniversary of Bheem in October 2015. His intention apparently was to facilitate the Adivasis, but it may not end up that way.
Nearly 2,000 Raj Gonds and Kolams inhabit the 14 habitations along the road and on any given day not more than 50 of travel towards the mandal headquarters. Most of them travel in the RTC bus, which makes a round trip to Jodeghat in the morning and evening, the rush being more than double on Sundays — shandy day at Kerameri. Not all the owners of the 10 two-wheelers in these villages and the two autos (financed under the Giri Express project of Utnoor Integrated Tribal Development Agency) move out of their village everyday. The autos come in handy only after harvest when the tribal farmers transport their agriculture produce to the market that too only in very small quantities.
Business interests
In contrast, non-tribals cultivate in more than 350 acres of land in the villages, barring Jodeghat which is an Agency village, like Babejhari, Kolam Pataguda and Chalbadi. However, non-tribals are cultivating tribal lands in the latter three villages and own lands in the rest of villages which are not categorised as Agency villages. The non-tribal farmers are also businessmen who own heavy duty transport vehicles. “The new road will come in handy for them not only to transport agriculture produce but illegal timber and also explore ways and means to encroach upon new forest land,” opined Pendur Mohan Rao convenor of the Kumram Bheem Martyrdom Committee. “There was no demand for this road from our side and we had actually demanded a road connecting Jodeghat to Movvad to reduce the distance to district headquarters town of Asifabad,” the Adivasi leader pointed out.
