Kothagudem: Finance Minister T Harish Rao stated here on Friday that the tribal people were experiencing a golden era under the rule of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. He praised the CM for resolving the decades-old issue of tribals and the issue of patta passbooks for podu lands was like a dream come true for the indigenous people. He pointed out that earlier only three lakh acres of podu lands had been granted to tribal people in the previous 60 years, but the BRS administration distributed over 4 lakh acres of podu land to them all at once.
Along with Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar, Harish Rao took part in the distribution of the pattas. Addressing a gathering of tribals on the occasion, he claimed that Kothagudem’spodu farmers received roughly one-third of the four lakh acres of podu lands distributed throughout the State. He distributed pattasto as many as 50,595 farmers for 1,51,195 acres in the district.
He informed that the podu farmers’land details would be uploaded on the Dharani portal, which makes them eligible for RythuBandhu, RythuBima, free energy, heavily discounted seeds, fertilisers and drip irrigation systems. He assured that the government would withdraw police cases booked against the podu farmers following their clashes with the forest personnel in the past. Podu farmers would also be eligible to receive compensation in case of vagaries of nature.Congress in its 2009 election manifesto promised to upgrade thandas into gram panchayats but failed to do so. However, KCR kept his promise by upgrading 2,471 thandas and gudems into gram panchayats for their self-rule, he noted.
Listing the initiatives taken for the welfare for the tribal people in the State, he said the ST reservation quota was increased by the government to 10%. As a result, more than 500 tribal students were admitted to MBBS programmes each year. The government also established tribal districts such as Kothagudem, Asifabad, Mulugu, and Bhupalpally. As against 91 colleges established by the previous governments in the 65 years preceding the state formation, 22 women’s residential degree institutions and 95 Gurukul colleges for tribal students were set up in the last nine years, he said, adding that the Mission Bhagiratha was quenching the thirst of agency villages which used to experience seasonal and water-borne illnesses due to shortage of safe water. Previous regimes only worried about using tribal people as a voting bloc, the CM KCR was attending to their long-pending issues and, as such, they should stand by the BRS in the upcoming elections, he urged.
MPs Nama Nageswara Rao and VaddirajuRavichandra, Government Whip Rega Kantha Rao, District Collector Anudeep Durishetty and MLAs in the district participated in the programme.
