As dusk falls, Gutta Jama competes with the speed of the lone gushing stream, a few meters away from her house, to prepare dinner for her family even as she breastfed her nine-month-old boy, Guru. Her husband Mr. Sukdhar and eldest son Sriram lend her a hand by beginning to chop logs for firewood for their two-stone stove.
The 39-year-old Bagata tribal woman watches as water slides from the tarpaulin covers arranged in her house to collect rainwater to fill the pots while her heart longs for a try with the warm sun as incessant rains continued to lash her village over the last three weeks. The rainwater harvest was meant for drinking and cooking purposes.
In Desia language, the lingua franca of the tribes on the AOB, Ms. Jama says, “Power Nay. Paani Nay. “Kaita Nay” (No electricity. No water to drink. We have nothing).
Ms. Jama lives in the Mallavaram village of Mothugudem gram panchayat in the Alluri Sitharama Raju district and her family consists ofnine members:her husband Mr. Sukdar, a 43-year-old autorickshaw driver, their six children including a girl, Roopa. Her husband's first wife Ms. Sonia also lives with them in the same hut which is partitioned into six rooms.
But, the hustle and bustle at Ms. Jama's house every evening, is not limited to one evening or only to her house in the village. Every evening, all families in the village rush to finish the kitchen work and daily chores, and put their children to sleep before it gets dark because darkness and misery are all they experience once the sun sets.
Ms. Jama gave birth to eight children and lost two of them to illness. Ms. Sonia also lost one of her two children to health problems while her elder daughter is married and lives with her in-laws in another village.
Located barely four kilometers away from the Lower Sileru Hydroelectric Project, Mallavaram village, formed in the 1970s still awaits an electricity facility. Mallavaram has 13 households and 15 families. It has a population of about 100 belonging to three tribes: Porja (a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group), Goud and Bagata who migrated from Malkangiri and Koraput districts in Odisha.
The plight of two of its neighboring villages—Tadikavagu and Raju Camp inhabited by the Kondh tribe—is also the same. On the AOB, these three villages are nestled in the Eastern Ghats' dense forest cover along River Sileru.
Until the deployment of paramilitary forces, the forest route was a safe hide-out for the Left-Wing Extremist (LWE) groups in India's Red Corridor, a zone where the Government of India has deployed paramilitary forces to tackle the LWE groups. However, over the past decade, the forest cover has emerged as a ganja hub where many cases of smuggling of the contraband were reported.
“Our parents were construction workers of the Lower Sileru Project (LSP) located at the Polluru camp in Mothugudem panchayat. Later, my father, Mr. Lycoon, worked as a lineman for the power project. Since then, our family made Mallavaram its permanent settlement,” said Mr. Sukhdar remembering his father who died a decade ago.
In the 1970s, the three villages—Mallavaram, Tadikavagu and Raju Camp—were formed with members of the four tribes who put in their sweat and blood for the construction of LSP, a hydroelectric project owned and operated by the AP Power Generation Corporation Limited ( APGENCO), on the Sileru river at the AOB.
On March 28, 1976, the LSP was commissioned at the Lower Sileru Power House at Polluru Camp. By 1978, the fourth turbine was commissioned to be equipped with a generation capacity of 460 MW (4×115 MW). But these villages, even in 2024, are yet to get electricity and safe drinking water supply facilities.
“Our village is barely four kilometers from the LSP that generates power from our very own Sileru river. It was our ancestors who toiled for the project. How could the government deny us electricity for nearly five decades?” asks a Bagata tribal youth, Janam Gono, of Mallavaram.
Mr. Gono, 34, left Mallavaram for Hyderabad where he laid cables for various communication networks for daily wage. In 2022, he returned to his village and began his fight for electricity supply to his village. Despite the lack of formal education, he managed to get the support of the local youth and rose as a local tribal rights activist, Mr. Gono convinced all his fellow tribes to fight for the electricity facility.
“In October 2022, I met then ASR District Collector Sumit Kumar who heard our village grievance and directed the District level Forest and Electricity officials to look into the issue. Within a few days, they rushed to our village and completed all the field investigations,” said Mr. Gono.
Mr. Gono and his fellow tribal youth were overjoyed when after the field inspection, the AP Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited (APEPDCL) authorities confirmed all possibilities to provide the electricity facility.
In Tadikavagu, which is two kilometers away from Mallavaram, a Kondh tribal couple—Gammela Balaraju and Sumitra—were also in a jubilant mood as the same team of officials inspected their village for the same purpose. Here, it was Mr. Balaraju who submitted a grievance to the District Collector on behalf of his village, in which 11 Kondh families are living. He also gets the same assurance that was given by the officials to Mr. Gono.
After the officials' visit, the news that the government had consented to give the electricity facility spread like wildfire. “All of us began listing out the things we needed to purchase once we got the electricity connections. A TV and sockets for charging cell phones were the things that every family thought of buying first,” says Majji Guruvari of Porja tribe of Mallavaram.
Ms. Guravari is in her second trimester, carrying her fourth baby in her womb. In the summer, her husband Mr. Ramsundar (30) died after falling from a Maddi tree (Arjuna tree) while trying to tap its toddy. Widowed at 25, she turned the breadwinner for her three girl children.
“We own three goats which may come in handy in case of any emergency,” says Ms. Guravari who lives in a hut made of a few dozen logs, without even a layer of mud. She asks her two-year-old daughter to add firewood to the stove as she recollects the disappointment the villagers felt with the official's response to their grievance.
Four months after the field inspection, the officials shot letters to Mr. Gono and Mr. Balaraju with an estimated sanction report. A copy of the letter received by Mr. Gono from the APEPDCL Deputy Executive Engineer (Operation-Chintoor) is with The Hindu.
“I was perplexed when the APEPDCL staff read out the letter for me. We cannot fulfill the prime condition that was mandated by the APEPDCL even if the financial contributions of all our three tribes are combined”, says Mr. Gono.
The APEPDCL letter reads: “You (Mr. Gono) are requested to pay the above charges by online through APEPDCL website or in the form of Demand Draft in favor of 'Divisional Electrical Engineer/Operation/APEPDCL/Rampachodavaram payable at Jaggampeta and furnish the same at AAO/ERO/APEPDCL/ERO-JAGGAMPETA in advance for taking further course of action against your application registered”.
“The application fee is zero. The Service Line Charges are ₹11,99,000 only and the security deposit is ₹200. The indicated charges are only tentative. If the applicant fails to pay the indicated charges on or before June 3, 2023, the APEPDCL shall reject the application without further notice”.
Subsequently, the hope of getting the electricity facility died as both Mallavaram and Tadikavagu villagers failed to meet the deadline.
It is the sole responsibility of the gram panchayat to guarantee the electricity facility in the villages under its jurisdiction.
“Our gram panchayat could not afford ₹15 lakh each for the villages of Mr. Gono and Mr. Balaraju for the electricity facility. We did not get timely financial grants or assistance from anyone including the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA-Chintoor) and APGENCO. The APGENCO says its helpless and cannot provide financial support for this cause despite several appeals from the villagers,” said Mothugudem sarpanch Aketi Seetha.
However, the APGENCO took upon itself to supply some street lights in the Mothugudem panchayat headquarters.
In the case of Raju Camp, where 15 Kondh families live, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has donated solar panel upon the request of the village sarpanch Ms. Seetha.
The CRPF was deployed in Mothugudem forest covers to counter the Naxalites. Raju Camp, which is four kilometers away from the main road is only accessible by walk, given its terrain and forest cover.
G. Mohana Vasudeva Rao, Chief Engineer, APGENCO Sileru Hydroelectric Projects has said: ”I have recently taken charge as Chief Engineer. The issue of electricity facility for Mallavaram, Raju Camp and Tadikavagu – is not in my knowledge. However, I will pursue the issue and work on possibilities for financial aid under the CSR funds”.
APGENCO Executive Engineer (LSP-Polluru Camp) B. Balakrishna says: “Our mandate is to generate power. However, the task of distribution is taken care of by the APEPDCL. We can pursue the issue of providing the electricity facility for 'domestic purposes' for these three villages in our area only when a decision is taken at a higher level. We will consider providing CSR grants only when a recommendation comes from any higher-level authorities. At our stage, we cannot proceed in this grievance”.
Before 2019, the State government provided a common solar facility for the entire village. A solar panel was installed at Mallavaram and Tadikavagu each. A panel is capable of generating solar power that supports only one bulb per household. Four inverters were arranged in each village for the utilization of solar power. However, half of them have failed in both villages.
Ms. Guravari says, “In monsoon, our village has decided to switch on the only bulb during dinner time. We get our cell phones recharged twice a week through somebody who visits Panchayat headquarters which is 4 kilometers away. We also do not have cell phone signals and we have to trek a hill for half a kilometer for that.”