Adivasis took out a rally at V. Madugula in Visakhapatnam district on Wednesday demanding that their villages be included in the Fifth Schedule.
The rally was organised by the All-India Agricultural and Rural Labour Association (AIARLA) and the CPI-ML (Liberation) Party.
Addressing the gathering, Human Rights Forum AP&TS coordination committee member V.S. Krishna explained how the Fifth Schedule dispensation is of a unique and exceptional nature endowed with explicit Constitutional recognition.
He said historic injustice was done to the adivasis since many decades because of non-inclusion in the Fifth Schedule of those villages that were predominantly Adivasi villages.
He recalled that the State Cabinet, in resolution No 58/76 in the then undivided Andhra Pradesh on March 10, 1976, had requested the Central government to include 805 non-scheduled Adivasi villages in the Scheduled area.
Had that been done, adivasis resident in those villages would not have continued to suffer immense injustice. Of these 805 villages, there are 553 in Andhra Pradesh. This includes 91 of them in Visakhapatnam district that are located in the mandals of Ananthagiri, Devarapalli, Cheedikada, V. Madugula, Ravikamatam, Rolugunta, Golugonda and Nathavaram, he said. Adivasis in these villages were deprived of Constitutional guarantees and protective legislation. They were unable to access developmental programmes and welfare measures meant for adivasi residents in the Scheduled Areas, he said.
AIARLA national secretary P.S. Ajay Kumar said that the State government had directed all ITDAs to focus upon non-scheduled Adivasi villages and to forward requisite proposals after conducting Gram Sabhas. However, ruling party legislators were obstructing this, he alleged.
Consequently, except for villages in Ananthagiri mandal, all others in the remaining mandals were excluded from the list. The stated intention of the government was to render justice to the adivasis, but MLAs of V. Madugula, Chodavaram and Narsipatnam were obstructing these efforts, he alleged.
Mr. Ajay Kumar clarified that as per guidelines issued by the Central Government, the consent of the MLA was not required for inclusion of villages to the Scheduled Area. He demanded that the ITDAs at least now should come forward and send a comprehensive and proper list to the government.
Secretary of the Joint Action Committee of Adivasi Unions and Federations Ramarao Dora emphasised the need to resolve the issue and protect the land rights of the Adivasis.
A large number of activists of the Fifth Schedule Sadhana Samithi as well as adivasis from the non-scheduled villages participated in the rally. A memorandum was addressed to the ITDA Project Officer and the Tahsildar calling for issuance of pattas for surplus ceiling land being cultivated by Adivasis since 30 years in Jalampalli panchayat of V. Madugula mandal.