Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

CM asks tribals to assert themselves

By Our Staff Reporter

POCHAVARAM (KHAMMAM DT.) Jan. 6. The Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, said on Monday tribal groups need to be more forthcoming and stake claim for their due.

Addressing gram sabha in the tiny tribal hamlet on the brink of the Papi hills, he said that the Janmabhoomi programme was a mission in itself aimed at organising people and more so remote area tribal communities. It was time for change, he said.

The landing of the Chief Minister's helicopter was just an amazing scene for denizens who got their earthen lamps replaced with electric lights only a fortnight ago with completion of village electrification and had RTC bus services extended to their place hardly a week days ago. The road formation connecting the place with the mandal centre of Vararamachandrapuram was just completed.

The people were more or less happy with the facilities provided by the administration ending their long isolation. The Chief Minister took pains to elicit the feedback he needed on the functioning of the official machinery and implementation of Government-sponsored programmes from the beneficiary tribals who preferred to be tightlipped to most of his queries.

Obviously tutored in advance, one of the tribal women heading a DWCRA group said, "Everything is fine with the village and its people. The officials are very regular in their visits.'' Asked who were all the officials coming to the village and how often, she said even the Collector and the ITDA project officer were coming to the village twice in a month. So was the case with the MRO and the MDO, she added.

Interrupting her, the Chief Minister said tribals need not hold brief for any official or individuals. They should be bold enough in representing their grievances and getting them redressed. He pulled up the Mandal Development Officer for failing to give correct figures on the number of pensions sanctioned and applications received.

He verified the figures on the laptop of the District Collector, Arvind Kumar, and summoned the applicants one after the other and asked the participants whether they were genuine beneficiaries. The village people approved their selection for sanction of pensions by a unanimous `yes'.

Mr. Naidu sounded equally critical of the village secretary as he admitted to have handed over the acknowledgements for the representations received from the villagers to one among them. He questioned the village secretary whether he was hand in glove with the person. In an obvious reference to the innocent tribals at the gram sabha, he said, "You are in many ways better than our people.''

The Chief Minister announced a liberal package of sops for the habitation of 96 households. The sops included Rs. 12 lakhs for construction of a new building for the ashram school in the village, a protected water supply scheme with filter-beds constructed in the Godavari river, cement roads in the village and black topping of a five kilometre stretch from Jeediguppa junction to Pochavaram.

The Chief Minister who paid a visit to the residential school at the village enquired with the children about the quality of the food being served to them. Some children complained that only sambar was not up to the mark. He asked the hostel staff and the GCC authorities whether the quality of the rations supplied to the school was good.

He visited a tribal family and interacted with the members about the amenities and the progress of the housing scheme. The village sarpanch, V. Ranga Reddy, urged the Chief Minister to help improve the standard of education in the local school.

The village witnessed heavy deployment of the police forces for the chief Minister's programme.

The Minister for Roads and Buildings, Tummala Nageswara Rao, and a host of other leaders of the party took part.

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