The non-descript Devarampadu village in Prakasam district comes to limelight only on occasions like Independence Day and Republic Day, as it was from this place Tanguturi Prakasam Panthulu had led the Salt Satyagraha in 1930 on a call given by Mahatma Gandhi then.
To commemorate the epoch-making event, noted freedom-fighter Babu Rajendra Prasad, first President of India had unveiled ‘‘Vijaytosava Stupa” later in 1935.
Except for visits by leaders and officials to the site on such occasions to remember civil disobedience movement during the Colonial period, not enough has not been done to perpetuate the memory of Prakasam Pantulu and the significant event of the Independence movement, feelsthe admirers of the freedom fighter here, as the nation gears up to hold gala celebrations as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
The site lacks a metal road. As a result, VIPs who visit the place on occasions like Independence Day avoid motoring down to the village braving slushy and bumpy roads leading to the Salt March site. The promise by politicians to develop it as a tourist spot remained unrealised.
An on-site museum and a library for the youth to draw inspiration, promised by leaders on the birth and death anniversaries of the first Chief Minister of Madras Presidency, had not been accomplished yet for various reasons, lament a group of villagers in a conversation with The Hindu at the village square.
The elders in the village recall that Prakasam Pantulu had earned the epithet 'Andhra Kesari' for his heroic act of baring his chest before the armed police to shoot during the visit of Simon Commission to Madras in 1928. It was with contributions from four to five land owners close to the site that the memorial had been erected to remember Prakasam Pantulu, who had spent the evening of his life in a mango orchard there. The promised park in the coastal village had not seen the light of the day yet, they lament.
The present generation should know more about such a leader, a barrister who plunged into the freedom movement after giving up his lucrative practise at the Bar drawing inspiration from Bipin Chandra Pal, they emphasise, adding he had also led the Andhra State carved out of Madras Presidency in 1953 as the first Chief Minister. The present government could take lessons from Prakasam Pantulu on running the administration during the tough times, as at present faced by the Andhra Pradesh government post-bifurcation, opines the Statesman's grandson, Tanguturi Gopalakrishna.
