An unusually large number of Adivasis, over 10,000 as per independent estimates, marched from Indervelli mandal headquarters village to Utnoor, the nerve centre of tribal development in Adilabad district on Monday in support of their demand for removal of Lambada plains tribe from the list of Scheduled Tribes. Their mood amply exhibited that they are determined in achieving their demand.
The mood was set as the maha padayatra started significantly from the Indervelli martyrs column before noon. The column stands testimony to the injustices done to the aboriginal tribes and their killing in a police firing incident in April 1981.
About 1,000 Raj Gonds and Pardhans started from the martyrs column but the crowd swelled as more and more joined them en route. Thousand of Raj Gonds, Kolams, Mannes and other ethnic tribes came from Kumram Bheem Asifabad district and joined the huge procession at Utnoor crossroads.
A dharna was staged at IB chowrasta where speakers criticised the State government for siding with Lambadas who had illegally usurped all the benefits that should rightfully come to the Adivasis. The speakers, mainly belonging to Tudum Debba or Adivasi Hakkula Porata Samiti and Adivasi Yuva Sena, warned Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao that Lambadas would ditch him one day though he trusts them more than he does Adivasis.
The protesters then marched towards the ITDA building where a brief sit-in was staged at the gate. They handed over a memorandum listing out their demands including deleting the Lambadas from the ST list.
Though the marchers never looked unruly, they tore off flexis of TRS leaders at Utnoor crossroads and IB chowrasta. Among those who spoke were former Boath MLA Soyam Bapu Rao, Tudum Debba Adilabad district vice-president Kudimetha Tirupati and Adivasi youth leader Vedma Bojju.