On November 4, Boosani Balaraju, a youth hailing from the Konda Reddy tribe, was perplexed to know about the cancellation of the grama sabha scheduled to be organised the following day on the proposal to declare 40 tribal habitations as Scheduled Area.
Like Mr. Balaraju, thousands of tribal people had a reason to be vexed with the officials, who postponed the grama sabha four times since August.
Meanwhile, the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) Rampachodavaram Project Officer C.V. Praveen Adhithya had issued a fresh notification on November 5 calling for the conduct of the grama sabha on November 19.
In 2019, the government had proposed to declare 554 tribal habitations located in the non-Scheduled Area as Scheduled Area in the five districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari.
In East Godavari district alone, as many as 56 habitations spread over 10 grama panchayats in Shankavaram, Prathipadu, and Rowthulapudi mandals are proposed to be conferred Scheduled Area status, which brings them under the purview of the ITDA.
The 10 grama panchayats have a population of nearly 25,000 belonging to four tribes – Konda Reddy (PVTG), Konda Kammara, Manne Dora, and Konda Dora.
Since the late 1970s, there has been a demand to declare the area as ‘Scheduled Area’. Unless the grama panchayats are declared so, the tribal people are not entitled to claim any benefits from the ITDA.
“The ITDA has directed us to conduct the grama sabha for the 40 habitations within four days of issuing notice. We could not conduct it on November 5 as no stakeholder could prepare for it at such short notice,” said East Godavari District Panchayat Officer S.V. Nageswar Naik.
As per the letter dated November 1 (a copy of which is with The Hindu ), Mr. Praveen Adhithya had directed the DPO and the revenue officials to conduct the grama sabha for the 40 tribal habitations within four days (November 5).
It is alleged that non-cooperation between the ITDA and district officials is leading to inordinate delay in the conduct of the grama sabha. As a result, there is no clarity on the proposal till date.
The proposal, it is said, will have to be discussed in the key State-level meeting to be convened by the Tribal Welfare Department on November 9 in Vijayawada.
“Last week, a grama sabha was conducted in Velangi panchayat. It was to lease out the hill, Nagulakonda, for laterite mining. None has bothered about us for decades, but the officials performed their duty when it came to leasing out the hill,” said Mr. Balaraju.
