All organisations working for welfare of tribal people and the Scheduled Tribe employees would take steps to bring pressure on State Government to sincerely implement the welfare schemes for Scheduled Tribes.
The State Government had persistently been ignoring the interests of the STs and had not taken a single step to prove its commitment to welfare of Girijans, representatives of different tribes said at a State-level meeting of organisations of STs organised by Girijana Aikya Vedika here on Saturday.
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No decision had been taken to clear the backlog of ST vacancies in the Government. The Government has not appointed a Tribal Advisory Council.
There is no tribal in the council of ministers in the State Government, the speakers pointed out.
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With a view to getting a clear picture of ground reality the members resolved to organise round table meet in each of the 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh in which representatives of all ST organisations would participate, State general secretary K. Vivek Vinayak said. A capacity building workshop for the office-bearers of ST organisations in Telangana and AP states would be organised at Srisailam on May 8, 9 and 10.
Issues
The members highlighted a number of issues that continue to plague the tribal people across the State.
The traditional burial grounds are in the forest area and the tribal people are prevented by Forest Department staff and officials from performing last rites for their departed in the burial grounds, representative from Prakasam district Pedya Naik said. The tribal people are not being allowed to take up NREGS activities as the entire area of work falls in forest land, he added.
Worse, the tribal people are unable to find a playground for their children as their villages are totally surrounded by forest land.
Representatives from all six ITDA areas in the State participated in the meeting that was hosted by Visakhapatnam district Girijana Aikya Vedika.