After Buldhana villages seek merger into MP, Maha govt builds new roads

Days after residents of villages in Buldhana demanded merger into MP alleging lack of facilities at the local level, the Maharashtra state government has initiated the process to build new roads

Days after residents of four villages in Buldhana district of Maharashtra demanded merger of these places into neighbouring Madhya Pradesh alleging lack of facilities at the local level, the state government has initiated the process to build new roads there.

People residing in these four villages - Bhingara, Gomal-1, Gomal-2 and Chalistapari - in Jalgaon Jamod taluka of Buldhana had made the demand for merger in a letter written to the district administration last week, in which they also claimed that they have been struggling to get their rights since the last 75 years.

Their demand came against the backdrop of Karnataka Chief Minister recently claiming, amid tension over a border dispute, that some villages in southern Maharashtra's Sangli district once wanted to be part of Karnataka because of their acute water problem.

The letter, written on December 6 by Bhingara sarpanch Rajesh Mohan, said among other things, that the residents of these villages find it difficult to get the Scheduled Tribes certificate even though they are tribals.

Talking to PTI, one of the signatories of the letter and resident of Bhingara village Sardar Awase said that soon after the letter, Jalgaon Jamod MLA Sanjay Kunte initiated the road construction work from Teen Kothi to Bhingara village on December 12.

Similarly, the district administration also started distributing caste certificates and so far given these documents to a few villagers, he said.

"This is a good step, but the caste certificates should be issued to all the tribal residents which is a long-pending and important demand," Awase said.

According to him, the tribal-dominated villages in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, which is just one-and-a-half kilometre from their village, have all basic facilities like electricity and the residents there were given land pattas (ownership document) by the government there.

"However, we are still struggling for electricity and are dependent on solar-powered equipment," he said.