Adilabad: Border villages get twice the options

Mukhaddamguda (ADILABAD):People from 14 villages under dispute, located on the state borders in Kerameri mandal, are likely to vote for the MPs of Telangana and Maharashtra in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

There has been long pending dispute in the villages between Maharashtra and Telangana.  Both Adilabad and Chandrapur Lok Sabha elections will be held on April 11.

People from these villages under dispute vote to elect public representatives 10 times in five years, unlike people from the two states who vote only for five times for local body elections, Assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections. The people from the villages under dispute said that the government should issue pattas for their lands.

The people have voter identity cards and have been receiving pensions and ration from both the states since both the states have been claiming rights on these villages.

Ramdas Govind Ranaveere of  Mukhaddamguda said that most of the people settled in these villages under dispute are Marathi speaking and they will get jobs if their villagers are merged into Maharashtra.  

However, Ramdas said that they have been claiming welfare schemes being offered by both the states and it is not on their part but on the part of both the states, violating the legislations. These disputed villages come under Rajura constituency of Chandrapur MP seat of Maharashtra and Adilabad MP seat of Telangana.

Lambada people, settled in these villages, now want to be in Telangana state since they have been getting ST reservations benefits unlike in Maharashtra where they are considered as VTGs (Vimukthy Jati).

Recently, elections were conducted for sarpanch and MPTCs in the two gram panchayats in the villages under dispute, as part of the elections conducted by the Telangana government.  

The Telangana government conducted elections for gram panchayats Ankapur, Bolapatar , Mukaddamguda and Parandholi.

The villages include Padmavathi, Lendiguda, Parasguda, Esapur, Indranagar, Gouri, Mukhaddamguda, Mahrajguda, Bolapatar, Shankarloddi, Parasguda and Ankapur.

Parandholi sarpanch Kamble Laxman was recently elected as sarpanch in the Telangana elections. Earlier, he was the sarpanch of the same gram panchayat and was elected in the Maharashtra elections.

Kamble Laxman said that they will vote for both the states’ MP candidates in the next Lok Sabha elections since the dispute of villages has still not been resolved and they receive benefits from both the states.