Bringing out laws alone would not help the cause of the tribal people unless their actual needs are identified and addressed, former IAS officer Dasari Srinivasulu has said.
Inaugurating a two-day awareness programme on forest rights and grama sabhas here on Monday, he felt it was not correct to fix a deadline for implementing the Forest Rights Act as even some IFS and IAS officials did not have proper knowledge about the law.
The Ekalavya Foundation in association with the Vishwa Yuvak Kendra has organised the programme.
“Officials should personally visit the tribal hamlets to understand their conditions and requirements. However, going there with their own set agenda and the schemes designed by the government would be of no use,” Mr. Srinivasulu opined.
‘Discuss land issues’
On holding of grama sabhas, Mr. Sinivasulu said that it became a habit for the ITDA and revenue officials to conduct 10 grama sabhas in one go at a place and call all tribal people of that mandal to attend the programmes there.
The former bureaucrat suggested that grama sabhas should discuss land allotment, its utilisation, maps, survey numbers and other issues related to it so as to infuse confidence among the tribal people who owned the land.
G.V. Subbarami Reddy, chief operating officer, Ekalavya Foundation, Rajiv Nirmal, programme officer and Yugandhar Reddy also spoke.
