Development of mineral rich Bhupalpally remains a mirage

Development of mineral rich Bhupalpally remains a mirage
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The mineral-rich Bhupalpally, despite being the highest producers of coal in the State-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), never got its due on the developmental front.Since the first piece of the coal was dug in this region in 1988 to this date, the smeary look of the town remained the same as the successive governments did not try to develop this town which has a population of about 60,000.

Warangal: The mineral-rich Bhupalpally, despite being the highest producers of coal in the State-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), never got its due on the developmental front.Since the first piece of the coal was dug in this region in 1988 to this date, the smeary look of the town remained the same as the successive governments did not try to develop this town which has a population of about 60,000.

All that mattered in the last three decades was how much they dug the black gold. Coal is called nalla bangaram in the local parlance, but not the aspirations of the people. The word ‘aspiration’ may sound big if one peeps into the status of the basic infrastructure available in this town, which is now a Nagar Panchayat.

Ironically, there was a bus depot in the town, but no bus station. When there were no proper internal roads, the question doesn't arise for side drains. Adding more to the woes, the Nagar Panchayat faces a severe staff crunch and more often these employees take to the streets demanding proper payments of salaries.

The long-pending demand for a 100-bed hospital is safely embedded in the party manifestos, and the public representatives lack the will to fulfil it. “If you can't cater a 100-bedded hospital with life-saving facilities, provide a graveyard at least,” a local said satirically, stating indirectly that they neither had a proper hospital nor a burial ground in the town.

People here always look at Parkal town, which is 35 km away, if there was an emergency such as fire mishap. Even for a petty litigation, the people had to run to Parkal as there is no court in the coal town. For emergency medical care, while the SCCL workers go to Godavarikhani (85 km) where they had a company hospital, the others travel 70 km to reach Warangal.

Though the town has a degree college, it was crammed in a building along with the junior college due to the absence of its own building. The missing list goes on... Strangely, the people here too stopped complaining about lack of infrastructure as they resigned to their fate. Whether the assurances given by the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao come true or not, but it once again rekindled the hopes of the locals.

Prominent among the Chief Minister's promises are–Bhupalpally will be made a revenue division, 100-bed hospital, own buildings for all government offices, 22 electric sub-stations and widening of 293-km long Panchayat Raj roads.

By:a mahender

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