The tribal people of Buriga and China Konela, the hilltop hamlets of Anantagiri mandal in Alluri Sitharama Raju district staged a protest at the Kasipatnam sub-station on Wednesday seeking provision of power supply without any further delay.
They allege that they are being made to run from pillar to post though they had submitted all the required documents for availing of power connections.
The two hamlets have a population of around 250 people. They have been living in the dark for the past several years. Though solar power was provided to the hamlets, about a decade ago, they became defunct in a short time due to lack of maintenance.
The electricity department has provided power connections to only four out of the 60 households. The villagers say that heads of 23 households, who had caste certificates and Aadhaar cards, had provided them to the electricity officials two months ago. But, the AE gave power connections to only four households, saying that only four households had submitted the documents, the tribal people allege.
The tribals say that they went to the office of the AP EPDCL CMD in Visakhapatnam on September 30 and apprised him of the issue. The CMD spoke to the official concerned and he too claimed that applications were received only from four households.
CPI(M) district secretariat member K. Govinda Rao alleged that the officials were making the tribal people run from pillar to post and dodging the issue. When the villagers went to the sub-station collectively to give applications, the officials there asked them to get certificates from the VRO that they were actually living in the two villages.
Mr. Govinda Rao said the electricity and revenue officials should coordinate and get the data of all the residents, instead of pestering the individual applicants.
The tribal applicants appealed to the District Collector and the ITDA Project Officer to do justice to them.
Published – October 30, 2024 08:42 pm IST
