Development miles away for CM adopted village

Visakhapatnam: Development in Peda Labudu panchayat which has 22 hamlets surrounding it in Araku mandal in the Agency has a long way to go. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu adopted this village three years ago and laid a road map to develop it to make a model village in the State.

When the Chief Minister announced his intention, people in this village had no drinking water facility, were walking to Araku for all needs as there were no connecting roads. Worst of all the children were forced to walk kilometres to attend their schools.

Though Araku Valley became famous over the years and attracted prominent people of the society, the peripheral villages remained in dark.Araku mandal has a population of 6,232 people of which 700 people live in Peda Labudu.

After many cancellations of trips, the Chief Minister visited the village on August 9 last year and interacted with the people promising them to make it a model village. He even in lighter vein told them that he would have house to live there. But only development the village has seen so far is that every house has a tap connection running round the clock and road to Araku. A community health centre has come up and a library has been opened in a rented building.

“For every need, we have to go to Araku which is seven kilometres away. Now we have everything available in this village,’’ said Peda Labudu sarpanch S Gulabi. Though she belongs to YSRCP, she has all praise for the CM for adopting the village.
But she said most of the villages under Peda Labudu panchayat need houses, Anganwadi centres and health centres.

In many villages, the housing schemes were going slow and it would be further delayed with the onset of monsoons, she added.In Gouthuguda hamlet under Peda Labudu panchayat, only 7 houses were sanctioned for 33 Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) families.

The village has no Anganwadi centre and the promised school is yet to be opened. In Kothavishnuguda, 22 houses were sanctioned but remained incomplete as bills were not paid so far. Construction of Anganwadi centres is going very slow. The situation is same in Novvaguda village where the construction of houses has been stopped due to non-payment of bills.

“We have library but there is no internet connection which could help us in pursuing our studies during vacation,’’ Anita and Vijaya who are students of Pharmacy in Visakhapatnam said. Senior revenue officials said most of the schemes promised by the Chief Minister would be completed within few days.

By KMP Patnaik