Nearly 7,000 toddy-tappers in the district are waiting for the Government to release compensation of Rs. 10,000 to each one of them promised after the toddy and palm trees were badly damaged due to Hudhud cyclone last October.
A GO was issued on November 3, 2014 on the compensation to each of the 6,919 toddy-tappers but it was not paid and the long wait continued even as their livelihood was lost, district general secretary of AP Toddy-Tappers Union Yerra Demudu said while the toddy tappers in large numbers sporting their gear organised a dharna in front of the Collectorate on Monday.
The Revenue Department officials at villages provided the Excise Department with the details of number of trees uprooted and damaged in each survey number and the Aadhar card, ration card and bank account details of affected toddy-tappers but the compensation was still eluding them, he said.
CPI(M) district secretary K. Lokanadham asked the government to release the compensation.
