Adivasi body to move High Court against Indiramma committees in agency areas

The tribal leaders want gram sabhas to be organised under the provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) PESA Act, 1996 for the selection of beneficiaries of Indiramma houses

Kothagudem: The State government’s order to form Indiramma committees at gram panchayat level and municipal ward level is facing opposition from adivasi organisations with regard to Scheduled Areas.

The adivasi leaders and organisations have termed the GO 33 released by the government for allocation of funds and formation of Indiramma committees as illegal in the case of Scheduled Areas with a large tribal population that are governed by a special mechanism. The tribal leaders want gram sabhas to be organised under the provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) PESA Act, 1996 for the selection of beneficiaries of Indiramma houses.

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Adivasi Advocates Association (AAA) state secretary and Adivasi Sena vice president Sode Venkateshwarlu has recently submitted petitions to chief secretary, secretaries of roads and buildings and tribal welfare departments recently in connection with the issue. He said that when a petition was filed in the Telangana High Court in 2023 with regard to selection of Gruha Lakshmi Scheme beneficiaries in agency areas, the court stayed the procedures and had ruled that the selection of beneficiaries should be done by gram sabhas subject to agency laws.

However, the Congress government which canceled Gruha Lakshmi Scheme and told the High Court that they were preparing new guidelines for the selection of beneficiaries for the implementation of the Indiramma Indlu Programme.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Venkateshwarlu said that the court in its judgment in this March allowed action as per the law in case there are any objections to the new guidelines. The government which told the court that a GO 7 was issued with the guidelines, neither submitted the said GO copy before the court nor it has made it available to the public, he noted.

The GO 33 issued on October 11 stated that the Indiramma committees related to the Indiramma Housing Scheme should be established by October 12 during Dasara vacations in a hurried manner within one day in consultation with the district in-charge minister, he noted.

Venkateshwarlu informed that a petition with regard to the issue would be filed in the High Court on the coming Tuesday. It might be noted that the government has planned to construct 4.50 lakh Indiramma houses in the first phase by providing Rs 5 lakh financial assistance to houseless poor who own a plot.