Even as the State government concluded the three-day Araku Utsav to promote tourism in the Visakha Agency, Girijans are demanding it to ensure that they receive the benefits that have been promised to them in the tourism projects when they were launched long ago.
Of course they found it not proper to conduct the festival when they expressed their strong opposition to the bauxite mining plan, the government has initiated through the GO No. 97.
The Girijana Sangham brought to focus how the local Girijans are being denied the benefits due to them. Photographs of the beautiful scenery of Visakha Agency and the local tribal people and their lifestyle are used to promote the area and attract the tourists but very little is passed on to the locals, it felt.
Several crores of rupees were earned by the Tourism Department from its units at Tyda, Anantagiri, Borra caves, Mayuri, and Punnami hotels and restaurants during 2015 alone.
This is the revenue it earned during every year in the past also but it is not spending the 20 per cent share as promised on the welfare of Girijans and in fact Rs. 1.7 crore is due to the Pedalabudu and Araku Valley Panchayats in the shape of taxes from the government departments.
‘No development’
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has adopted several villages under Pedalabudu Panchayat near Araku Valley one year ago but no development was witnessed, the sangham opined. The 100-bed hospital at Araku Valley has only smart buildings but doctors are absent and the residents of tourist centre lacked basic amenities.
The Girijana sangham, while stepping up its ante against the government, demanded compensation to the Hudhud cyclone victims that has been promised more than a year ago.