ANANTAPUR: As many as 24 villages will have road access across Pennar river near Tarimela in Tadimarri mandal soon. Anantapur MP Talari Rangaiah has used his MP local area development (LAD) fund for erection of a causeway to solve the region’s decades-old travel and transportation problems.
Normally, MPs share the LAD fund with several mandals, giving each of them two to five lakhs for minor works and erection of community buildings. However, the Anantapur MP’s decision to allocate a substantial sum of Rs 76 lakh for a single work (causeway) made a big difference to the people of the 24 villages.
The villages connecting River Pennar had no proper approach road to reach the mandal headquarters and the nearest district headquarters in Anantapur for most parts of the year. Students reached their schools and colleges with much difficulty by crossing the river. The situation was similar to the coastal areas but, worse, these areas had no boat facility.
Further, farmers faced difficulty shifting their produces to the Anantapur Market Yard though these villages have water facility and potential for cultivation of sweet orange, papaya and other horticultural products.
In view these, the Anantapur MP, who formerly served as Anantapur district rural development agency project director, initiated steps to allocate maximum funds from his MP Lad funds to build the causeway and lay access roads to all 24 villages between Chittur and Tarimela.
The causeway works were now in the final stage and there would be clear access to it from all the 24 villages. Rangaiah told DC that he was seriously concerned about the plight of the people of these 24 villages adjacent to Pennar river. They faced difficulty crossing the river for every small errand and to go to Anantapur city that lay close to the area but separated by the river.
“We allotted a full budget from my MP Lad fund this time for construction of the causeway and people can travel effortlessly throughout the year.” Rangaiah said.
Nagi Reddy, a farmer, recalled that the villagers were facing many hurdles to reach Anantapur, due to lack of road access.
