Communist Party of India(Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has alleged that the BJP-led NDA government amended the Forest Protection Act to hand over the resources in tribal areas to the corporate groups.
Addressing an election meeting at Paderu in Alluri Sitharama Raju district, in support of the INDIA bloc candidates on Wednesday, Ms. Karat also alleged that the Opposition TDP and the ruling YSRCP were toeing the line of the BJP and called upon people to defeat them, and elect the INDIA bloc candidates to protect the rights of tribals. She said that there was a danger of the corporate groups like Adanis entering into the tribal areas in the name of bauxite mining and hydel power projects.
She said that the Union government had removed the right of ‘Gram Sabha’ to accept or reject development projects in forest areas. This was done to favour the corporate groups. She also alleged that the government was creating hurdles in the implementation of 100% reservation for tribals in filling the teacher posts in scheduled areas, citing court guidelines.
Ms. Karat said that the tribal people would also stand to lose due to the sale of Public Sector Undertakings as private and corporate groups would not implement the rule of reservation. She said that the YSRCP and TDP leaders were silent on the attacks on tribal rights by the BJP, due to fear of cases.
Araku Lok Sabha CPI(M) candidate P. Appalanarsa, CPI(M) State secretariat member K. Lokanadham and Killo Surendra, CPI(M) senior leaders Ch. Narasinga Rao, CPI district secretary B. Satyanarayana, Congress leader Veeranna Padal and Aam Aadmi Party district president Gangaraju were among those who participated in the meeting.
Earlier, the CPI(M), CPI, Congress and AAP leaders took out a rally fro the ITDA office to the Ambedkar statue at Paderu.
