CLP leader slams BRS regime for ‘weakening’ ITDAs

The ruling dispensation is weakening laws meant to protect tribals, charges Congress Legislature Party leader Bhatti Vikramarka during his padayatra in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader M B Vikramarka has charged the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government with not implementing the SC and ST Sub-Plans and diverting the funds meant for the welfare of SCs and STs.

The previous Congress regime had introduced the SC Sub-Plan in the lines of the ST Sub Plan through proper legislation to ensure 100% spending of budget allocation and focused development of Dalits and tribals, he said while addressing a press conference at Kerameri village in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district on Tuesday.

The CLP leader reached Kerameri from Jamni in Jainoor mandal traversing 18 km on the sixth day of his ‘Haath Se Haath Jodo’ padayatra earlier in the day.

He accused the BRS government of weakening the ITDAs and depriving tribals of their forest rights.

“The ruling dispensation in Telangana is attempting to evict tribal people from their homes in the forests and handover the lands to the timber mafia,” he charged.

Referring to his interaction with Adivasis inhabiting the tribal heartland where legendary Adivasi martyr Kumram Bheem launched the ‘Jal, Jungle, Zameen’ movement, he said the distressed Adivasis poured out their woes. “They complained that they were not given new passbooks and their lands were not included in the Dharani portal’s records under the BRS regime.”

They had received financial support under the Rythu Bandhu scheme only once. But it was stopped later as the tribals’ patta lands were not included in the online records, the CLP leader said deploring that the local Adivasis were being deprived of benefits of crop loan waiver and the Rythu Bandhu schemes.