http://moonchasing.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/forgotten-country-the-cut-off-area-of-malkangiri/
"..The FIR lodged by the police states, in exact words, “they congregated with their traditional weapons like arrow, bow, axe.” Thus they were ‘traditionally’ booked for Section 25 of the Arms Act, amongst other acts pertaining to Unlawful Assembly. Considering Section 25 of the Arms Act is a non-bailable offence, the FIR functions like an arrest warrant..." "...It’s the story of their lives. They wait. They wait for the boats that sometimes take a week to come. They wait hours for jeeps where over fifty people try to squeeze into, get onto, clamber for a foothold. They wait for the buses that don’t even run. They wait to meet the collector, they wait for his promises to come to something. They wait for the electrical poles to come to their villages. They wait for the Public Health Centres to open closer to their villages so their children don’t have to die of preventable diseases. They wait..." "..They, the tribals of the Cut-off area of Malkangiri, have been *waiting*sixty-two years for development. Within the Cut-off areas, there are other cut-off villages, again inaccessible by land. One can only access them by small wooden boats or ‘dongaas.’ The further inland one travels, the less development has ‘trickled down’. For instance, the village of Karlamal lacks all the basic amenities like clean water, electricity, healthcare and roads, but interestingly, they were issued voter cards in 2004. All of them voted for the first time in their lives in 2004, even though they didn’t know who they voted for, and no one told them that they couldn’t vote. According to the villagers of Karlamal, the only thing that works, is the primary school. At one such school, the Educational Complex for ST Girls, Badapada, there are more than 250 girls who study in the light of one solar-battery powered lamp and two kerosene lamps at night. Seven teachers and one clerk haven’t been paid for more than 3 months and have been taking ration on credit from Chitrakonda. ‘The collector visited on the 25th of February and said that the funds hadn’t been allotted yet’, they said. All of the teachers were born in the Cut-off area, and now a whole new generation is growing up, unaware of the history of their grandparents..". -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
