Two Andhra villages tell tale of broken promises

Potaram/Gurramgadda: Half of Andhra Pradesh will queue up on Wednesday to cast their votes and elect their representatives.

But two remote villages in two different districts in Telangana region will wonder whether this exercise means any thing at all.

For the people of Potaram in Kamareddy assembly constituency, all promises of the 2004 elections lie shattered. Ditto for the Gurramgadda village in the middle of river Krishna on the border of Mahubnagar and Kurnool districts. The dream of the villagers to have a bridge linking their village to the main land remain unfulfilled.

Potaram hit the headlines before 2004 elections as thirty farmers in this tiny village had committed suicide under the burden of debt.

Five years later, hardly any thing has changed. Farmers continue to commit suicide even as the families affected by the earlier incidents are yet to get any assistance from the government.

The fact that the village lies in Kamareddy constituency, represented by minister for energy Mohammad Ali Shabbir did not make a bit of difference.

"What Shabbir has done for us? Nothing. He had promised us before the 2004 elections that if Congress comes to power all our miseries and difficulties will be over. We will get money and all our loans will be written off. Nothing of that sort has happened," says Balja, whose brother Balaiah had committed suicide 7 years ago.

In Gurramgadda, the 500 odd voters were also angry and disappointed. They are still dependent on the "Tokras" (big basket bags) to cross the river Krishna.

"The lack of road link and transport facility is our biggest problem", said Krishnaiah, who operates one of the Tokras.

When asked why the problem was not solved, D K Aruna, the independent MLA of Gadwal constituency, in which Gurramgadda falls, said: "Building a big bridge for a small population of 500 is not possible. So now we have decided to build a causeway".