A motorable road has remained elusive for the people of the Mylacherla village in Chandrasekarapuram mandal of Prakasam district as the nation gears up to celebrate the 72nd Independence Day.
The villagers literally carry the sick on a makeshift ‘doli’. In the process, the patients quite often miss the golden hour, which is imperative for the doctors to give a new lease of life to them.
Rainy season
According to the villagers, the situation is very grim, especially during the rainy season, and for pregnant women as even the beaten narrow path turns marshy in the village on the fringes of the mighty Nallamalla forests, making travel very difficult.
“We have to trek through the inhospitable terrain up to V. Bailu village for a distance of 7 km before going to C.S. Puram, about 35 km away from the village by a bus from there, said a village youth Rangasamy.
“It is not that they have not pleaded with the authorities for a road. The single demand raised by all of us to officials and politicians for decades is a motorable road. But none choose to positively respond. Independence Day has no meaning for us,” said E. Narasaiah, a resident.
In the absence of motorable road, people skip taking pension on a monthly basis, said K. Lingaiah, a senior citizen. Putting up with the cash crunch, they collect it from officials once in three or four months.
People grow millet to meet their own needs as they cannot take their agri-products to markets due to lack of a motorable road. “Despite all the hardship, people prefer to live in the village itself as they will feel fish out of water if they migrate to other places,” a resident said.
The school in the village remain closed as the teachers either refuse to join duty or put in their papers sooner or later. The villagers want the government to at least start a mini-anganwadi centre in the village to provide nutritious food to pre-school kids.