The Adivasi Hakkula Porata Samiti or Tudum Debba, an organisation of aboriginal tribes, on Wednesday demanded an apology from the State government for the ‘insult’ to National Scheduled Tribe Commission Chairman Nand Kumar Sai.
On Tuesday the Chairman had been kept waiting for a helicopter to take him to the Adivasi Jatara at Medaram and refused it at the last minute despite the government having promised to extend him the service. The Tudum Debba said they would not allow government functionaries to land in helicopters at Medaram as a measure of protest. “Only Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and Central Ministers will be allowed to arrive in helicopters,” Tudum Debba leaders said. At a press conference, Tudum Debba honorary president Soyam Bapu Rao, Adilabad district president Uike Sanjeev and Adivasi Students Union president Vedama Bojju said as the government had promised to provide a helicopter for Mr. Sai to visit Medaram from Hyderabad, he had arrived at the State capital in the morning and waited for communication for a few hours.
At about 1 p.m. some government functionary got in touch and asked him to go to Medram the next day as the helicopter was being used by Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao and MP Seetharam Naik, they added.
“This is an insult of a national Adivasi leader. The government has again discriminated against Adivasis and we are going to represent the matter to the President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Mr. Bapu Rao said.
