Tribals stage dharna for Girijana Bandhu in Adilabad

Hundreds of tribals belonging to different parts of the district gathered in front of the Collectorate and staged a sit-in seeking the government to extend Girijana Bandhu scheme to ethnic tribes.

Adilabad: The tribal rights organisation, Tudum Debba, staged a dharna demanding the government to introduce Girijana Bandhu on the lines of the Dalit Bandhu scheme, in front of the Collectorate in Adilabad on Monday.

Hundreds of tribals belonging to different parts of the district gathered in front of the Collectorate and staged a sit-in seeking the government to extend Girijana Bandhu scheme to ethnic tribes. Their leaders later submitted a representation to Collector Sikta Patnaik and requested her to bring the issue to the notice of the government.

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Some of their demands included providing financial support of Rs 10 lakh, 3 acre of land and abolition of ST status to Lambadas, issuing certificates of rights to till forest lands, creating a tribal university in Adilabad, to implement government order number 3 as it is, to build 2BHK houses to tribal families, to conduct polls to Utnoor gram Panchayat at the earliest and to fill up teacher posts by Adivasi candidates.

Godam Ganesh, president of the organization and Kumram Shyam Rao, vice-president, said that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had assured to grant the documents of rights to till the forest lands in the Legislative Assembly in the past, but the promise was not fulfilled so far. They demanded the government address the demands mentioned in the representation.

Carrying flags of the organization, the tribal earlier leaders reached the venue of the protest by taking a procession. They raised slogans against the government for failing to resolve their long-pending issues. They earlier paid tributes to tribal legend Kumram Bheem by garlanding his statue.