Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram has alleged that the TRS Government’s attempts to evict tribal people from their ‘podu lands’ in the name of afforestation programme amounted to blatant infringement on the tribals’ rights over forest lands as guaranteed under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.
The persons at the helm of the affairs in the State should acquaint themselves with the provisions of the FRA to desist from violating its provisions and implement the legislation in toto, he said. Mr. Veerabhadram was speaking at a massive demonstration organised by the CPI (M) district committee in Kothagudem on Friday to press for grant of pattas (land ownership documents) to tribals as per the provisions of the FRA and sanction of double-bed room houses to all shelterless poor people in the district.
The coal town attained a red hue with scores of tribal people and shelterless poor marching through the main streets of the town holding red flags and banners as part of a huge rally held under the aegis of the CPI (M) district committee on Friday afternoon. Mr. Veerabhadram accompanied by the party MP from Tripura Jatin Chowdhury and other senior leaders led the rally.
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Addressing the demonstrators, he alleged that the TRS Government had confined itself to mere rhetoric without providing two-bed room houses to thousands of shelterless poor and three-acre land to the landless dalits in the past three years.
He reiterated that the CPI (M) would stand solidly behind the tribal people to defend their constitutional rights. Mr. Jatin Chowdhury flayed both the State and Central governments for allegedly depriving tribal people of their constitutional rights over forest lands.