Residents demand remerger of their village with TS

Kothagudem: The residents of Kannaigudem gram panchayat in Yetapaka mandal of Alluri Sitaram Raju Manyam district in Andhra Pradesh have demanded remerger of their village with Telangana as they were not being cared for by the AP government.

Scores of residents of the village took to the streets shouting 'Jai Telangana' slogans and staged a dharna in the village in support of their demand. They complained that during recent flooding in river Godavari the AP government has not provided any relief or facilities and they had to live in the grip of fear for their lives for over a week.

The residents noted that they were born in Telangana region and wanted to be with Telangana State as they were more associated with Telangana than AP. Bhadrachalam was just five kilometres away from Kannaigudem but the district headquarters of Manyam district was around 350 km from the village and thus causing transportation problems.

"The residents could not find a boat when a pregnant woman needed medical care. We don't need AP but want to be with Telangana as our lives have become like those living in forests where one could not find any basic amenities" stated a resident B Mangaiah.

He sought to know why the Centre merged their village with AP without their consent. The residents have been demanding demerger of the village for the past several years but none were caring, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao should take the initiative towards the demerger of the village, he said.

D Narasimha Rao also complained they were deprived of all the welfare schemes which the Telangana government was providing to the people in the State. He said that they were facing difficulty whenever a sick person was taken to Bhadrachalam for medical treatment as they belonged to AP, where they lacked proper health facilities.

"We were surrounded by Telangana and we want to be with Telangana. When our gram panchayat was merged with AP no grama sabha was held, why were we thrown into such a mess, what was our mistake" lamented a woman, Lakshmi.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar and the TRS leaders from erstwhile Khammam district have also wanted remerger of Yetapaka, Kannaigude, Pichukalapadu, Purushothampatnam and Gundala villages with Telangana.

The demerger of the villages would help to extend the Karakatta in those villages to avoid flooding of villages on the banks of river Godavari as decided by the Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao. The Centre should take the initiative in that direction, they said.