Former Union Minister Balram Naik has said the Congress has given pattas to Scheduled Tribes covering three lakh acres of podu lands and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) was hell bent on driving away the tribal people from those lands.
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At a press conference here, he reminded that it was Congress that brought the Forest Rights Act in 2006 in the interests of the tribal people and no other government had helped them at such a level. He demanded that the TRS government fulfil its promise of enhanced reservation to the Scheduled Tribes and asked them to explain under what procedure the recent announcement of 10% reservation was announced.
The Supreme Court guidelines were clear on reservation not exceeding 50%, he said, and asked the TRS government to spell out its strategy to overcome that impediment. Mere issuing GOs or announcing enhancement would not serve the purpose and it would be tantamount to misleading the tribal people, he said.
Congress leader Mangilal Naik said the High Court had set aside the GO brought out by the TRS government on the forest lands. He accused the State government of negating all the good done by the previous Congress governments for the tribal people.