The Koyas of Chintoor agency will probably be the only tribe in the country which will have to travel over 500 km to visit their proposed new district headquarters Paderu.
It means around 10 hours of journey to go and come back by road, crossing the hilly terrains and forest swathes that are thriving with the Left Wing Extremist activities. Even this journey is not allowed after nightfall through the Naxal-hit forest cover.
Similar will be the case of the Rampa agency's Konda Reddy tribe, Andhra’s Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group. The State government has issued a notification to create a new district, Alluri Sitharama Raju district, with headquarters at Paderu, consisting of Chintoor and Rampachodavaram Revenue divisions in East Godavari district and Paderu division in Visakhapatnam district.
Travel woes
“Even for a Member of Parliament, it takes a complete day to visit the tail point of the new district, given the geographical disadvantages and inconveniences to move from one terrain to another. For the common people, it will be a Herculean task to reach the headquarters and get their things done,” Araku MP Goddeti Madhavi tells The Hindu.
She says that the tribes of Rampa and Chintoor should be allowed to be with either Rajamahendravaram or Kakinada districts. The proposed district shares a border with Khammam district in Telangana and Malkangiri in Odisha, an entire belt with Naxal presence.
“Rampachodavaram must be the district headquarters which is centrally located and accessible. I have mooted this idea with the Chief Minister,” Rampachodavaram MLA N. Dhanalakshmi tells The Hindu.
