Tiruvannamalai:
The inhabitants of the remote villages tucked away in Jawadhu Hills, about 70 km from here, got the shock of their impoverished lives the other day when their district collector came riding a motorbike to check on their needs.
The young IAS officer, Dr. Pingale Vijay Maruti, brought his additional collector T. Anand on the pillion, riding through 15 km of tough forest tracks winding along steep slopes amidst loose boulders to reach those miserable people and see firsthand the generations of neglect they have suffered through successive regimes. About 5,000 people live in these 11 villages that lack most of the basic needs, including schools, healthcare and ration shops.
“Almost all the people he met told the collector that their most vital need is a road to link them to civilisation. They carried their sick 17 km down the difficult forest track to reach the nearest PHC (public health centre), often too late, and carried the dead body on their shoulders for final rites at home. Moved by their plight, the collector has initiated steps to lay roads through the hills”, said a local official, who had struggled to keep pace with Dr. Maruti on that trip on Tuesday.
Asked for details, Dr. Maruti told DC that he met several village leaders during his motorbike ride up the hills and told them to activate their ‘forest rights committees’ for helping him to lay the roads. Under the forest laws, only thin paths of 3.5 metres width were allowed through reserved forests but the ‘forest rights act’ permitted exceptions to make life better for the inhabitants of inner villages.
Once the roads are completed, it would be possible to motor from Polur on Tiruvannamalai side to Jamunamaruthur and on to Amrithi on Vellore side. “A villager now has to either walk or take the bus on a circuitous route of over 50 km for this travel, whereas the new road will shorten the distance to 12 km”, Dr Maruti said.
“It’s been over two years since I rode a two-wheeler, but this ride was quite exciting. And very satisfying in its results”, added the collector, who hails from Nasik in Maharashtra.
source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / March 29th, 2013