Polavaram Submergence Zone
NOT JUST A PLACE TO LIVE
In Sriramagiri panchayat, a few Kondareddi settlements want nothing to do with the relief and rehabilitation package for those who would be displaced by the Polavaram dam. Fighting off underhand tactics by officials, they are determined to remain in their homes, amidst their culture and its history. R Uma Maheshwari reports.
They said her name was Seeta mahalakshmi. It conjured up in my mind an image of a middle-aged woman, just another of those proxy women panchayat representatives. I’ve visited many other villages in V R Puram mandal of Khammam district, and one becomes familiar with the typical occupants of these offices reserved for women, but often managed by them in name only. But my mind’s image of this Kondareddi woman vanished with a pleasant surprise. Out walked a young sprightly woman, with a sportsperson’s gait, dressed in pant and shirt, her wavy hair plaited behind. A woman with doe eyes and skin like porcelain. I was introduced to Kotla Seetamahalakshmi, the 23-year-old Panchayat President of Sriramagiri panchayat, amidst the warmth of a late afternoon in early February.
Kotla Seetamahalakshmi, President of Sriramagiri panchayat (Picture by R Uma Maheshwari).
Seetamahalakshmi’s beauty is not a stereotype to bind her character in; it is something that adds to her persona, of one leader, among many, who refuses to move an inch from her stated position. Sriramagiri panchayat is one of the many that will be submerged under the Andhra Pradesh government’s proposed Indira Sagar (Polavaram) dam on the Godavari river. And its sarpanch is firmly against the dam and the government’s ‘packagi’ (the relief and rehabilitation package, as it is referred to in these parts). Her views are heartening, especially since on this particular trip, I’ve witnessed too many people from the submergence-area villages gradually losing hope and the will to resist the power of the state. (ఇంకా…)
