Self-reliant tribal villagers of Vizianagaram pool money to build roads

In a bid to improve connectivity, the residents of Chintamala, a tribal village in Vizianagaram district, pooled in money and laid a road by themselves. Chintamala is just 3 kilometres away from Odisha’s Koraput district. A footpath to the village was laid earlier in 2017, but it later got covered by bushes. Ever since the residents of the hamlet have been using makeshift stretchers for medical emergencies. However, they struggled to reach hospitals in time, during emergencies in the absence of proper roads. Despite the tribal villagers making several requests to the district authorities, to build roads, their pleas were left unattended.

Rising up to the occasion, a few of the village’s youth initiated to construct a road to Chintamala. Each household contributed around Rs 8,000 by selling paddy and ragi (finger millet) and pitched in the amount. A few others had also mortgaged valuables so they could contribute to the cause. The inhabitants of Bandapayi, which is a kilometre away from Chintamala has also taken up a similar initiative. Each of the villagers of tribal hamlet pitched about Rs 15,000 to build roads to their village. Reportedly, they hired JCB excavators from Odisha to build the 4-km ghat road.

Sharing the testimonial by a local who has been coordinating with the villagers to build the road, a Twitter user quoted that the villagers took up the activity, after looking at actor Sonu Sood‘s social initiatives in the past few months. Overwhelmed by the story, Mr Sood called it the ‘best news ever’. The actor added that it will inspire the nation to follow it. Retweeting the video, he promised he would pay them a visit.