VTDA polls being held after 15 years

Village Tribal Development Agencies are being elected in 1,500 habitations in 44 mandals

Democratic exercise:Kolam villagers raise their hands in support of a candidate asvice-president of the Village Tribal Development Agency at Muthampet in Indervelli mandal on Saturday.- Photo: S. Harpal Singh

The agency villages in Adilabad district will once again have a say in development of their habitations with the formation of Village Tribal Development Agencies (VTDA). VTDAs are being elected in 1,500 tribal habitations in 44 of the 52 mandals after 15 years and the five-day process started on Saturday.

The VTDAs comprising of respective sarpanch as president and a vice-president and secretary are the grassroot-level units in terms of seeking and executing developmental works. The concept was introduced in the agency area as far back as 1994 and the first, which incidentally was the last also until this instance, election was held in 2001.

“The idea is to empower tribal habitations through the VTDAs,” observed Utnoor Integrated Tribal Development Agency Project Officer R.V. Karnan.

“The villagers should play an active role in development planning and execution,” he added.

The job of the VTDA is to seek funds for developmental activity from the ITDA via grama sabhas. The ITDA in turn releases required funds for the VTDA which execute the works themselves thereby eliminating the involvement of contractors in case the works do not cost more than Rs.10 lakh.

If the 2001 event saw political involvement resulting in groupism in villages, there seems to be nothing of the kind in the current election.

ITDA Project Officer R.V. Karnan is credited with spreading relevant awareness on the issue of political involvement.

“One of the changes which was noticed was the election of educated youth as vice-presidents of VTDAs in some villages,” the Project Officer said. Dantanpally VTDA is one such unit which has educated person as its vice-president.

The electorate comprises of all adult villagers who elect the vice-president and secretary by raising their hands.

While the vice-president can be either a man or a woman, the secretary post is reserved for women from local self-help group and the voters too are women from SHGs.

The election on day one was peaceful with Muthampet VTDA in Indervelli mandal being an example. All the 44 Kolam tribe voters raised their hands in support of Sidam Maruti as vice-president but there was voting for the general secretary’s post with Athram Anita winning it.