Hyderabad: Strongly asserting that the Governors had the full authority over the fifth schedule areas where the Adivasis live, former Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao said that neither the Assembly nor the chief minister could resolve the tribal issues. He stressed that only the Adivasis, by persistently representing their issues to the Governor, could help themselves.
Addressing a gathering of Adivasis on the occasion of the “World Indigenous People’s Day” celebrated at the Tagore Auditorium at the Osmania University (OU) Campus on Friday, August 9, Vidyasagar Rao spoke elaborately about the need to protect the lands of the Adivasis from going into the hands of non-tribals in the agency areas.
He spoke about how as the Governor of Maharashtra he used his powers to send 5 percent of the entire funds from the tribal sub-plan directly from his office to the gram panchayats in the agency areas, without the need for consent from the state legislature.
“As the Governor I could ensure that the tribals got full rights on the entire minor forest produce in the forests there including the beedi leaves, bamboo, and also on the aquatic life in the water bodies located in the agency areas. Today, the gram sabhas are auctioning their own produce,” he said.
He also pointed out how former President Pranab Mukherjee had told the governors of all the states to follow the example of Maharashtra to use their powers for the welfare of Adivasis, by taking cues from former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Panchsheel’- five principles of peaceful coexistence.
Reminiscing the times when he was a legislator, he said that he has been raising the issue of the violation of 1/70 in the agency areas, and the illegal occupation of tribal lands by outsiders.
He said that starting with former chief minister NT Rama Rao, Kotla Vijay Bhaskar Reddy or under any chief minister for that matter, politicians in successive governments have always wanted to repeal the 1/70 Act, so that they could grab or buy tribal lands in the agency areas to amass properties and wealth.
“It has been more than 35 years since 1/70 Act and land transfer regulations were passed, and 20 years since the Girgilani Committee had submitted that most of the tribal lands have gone into the hands of non-tribals in the areas, even till today none of the successive state governments have implemented the committee’s recommendations,” he said, recalling how JM Girgilani, whom he personally knew, had shed tears talking about the pathetic state in which the Adivasis in the undivided Andhra Pradesh were living in.
“In the agency areas of Utnoor, Asifabad, Eturunagaram and many areas, wealthy non-tribes have entered and occupied the tribal lands leading to the tribals alienating their own lands. One classic example is Rajiv Nagar in Narsampet, which used to be populated only by Koyas, but today not a single Koya tribal can be seen there,” he exclaimed, urging the Adivasi youth to go to such villages, study how the alienation of land, illegal occupation by non-tribes has happened, report it to media, and reclaim those land back as per the 1/70 Act.
Wondering how 25,000 acres of government land in Bhadrachalam had gone into the hands of non-tribes, Vidyasagar Rao said that it was grave injustice meted-out towards the future generations of Adivasis by the successive governments.
Underlining that even the Nizam and the Britishers had realised that injustice was being done to the Adivasis, he wondered why no discussions had taken place in the recent budget sessions of the Assembly and the Parliament.
He urged the Adivasis to write to the United Nations to declare the birth anniversary of Adivasi freedom fighter and warrior Birsa Munda which was being observed as “Jan Jaati Diwas” in India, to be observed across the world as well.
| 
