Members of the Koraga District Committee, who began an indefinite dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office, withdrew their agitation after Deputy Commissioner Hephsiba Rani Korlapati met them here on Monday and assured them of looking into their demands.

Dinakar Babu, president of the zilla panchayat, met the agitators. He too assured the agitators of directing the zilla panchayat and the district administration to look into their demands.

Demands

Earlier, the members of the committee demanded proper implementation of projects worth ₹ 2.25 crore under the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation for the welfare of tribal communities. Addressing the protesters here, Sushila Nada, district convener of the Aranya Moola Budakattu Samudayagala Okkoota, said that the number of people belonging to the Koraga community, a primitive tribe, was fewer in the district.

Yet the district-level officers of the corporation had drawn up projects without taking the community into confidence. Projects prepared without taking the community into confidence were bound to be misused, she said.

She said that the okkoota had given a draft of projects to the corporation on the instructions of the Deputy Commissioner. But the officers of the corporation had ignored it and had come up with their own projects. “We do not accept these projects. We want projects that will benefit tribal communities,” she said. Ms. Nada said that projects should be drawn up based on the population of Koraga and Malekudiya tribes. The grants too should be distributed based on the population of these two tribes at the taluk-level in the district.

The projects drawn up by the okkoota should be implemented with the cooperation of the people of these two communities.

One-third of the grants should be allocated for the welfare of the women of these two communities, Ms. Nada said

Ammanni Chorady, former president of the Karnataka and Kerala Koraga Development Federation, Puthran Hebri, president of the Koraga District Committee, Diwakar Kalathur, Girija Jannady, Sanjeeva Barkur and Diwakar Kalathur, leaders of the committee, were present.