Tribals get their identity cards

Anakapalli: After a long fight, Jeelugulova tribals were given voter cards, ration cards, Aadhaar cards and date of birth certificates finally here on Wednesday. The villagers staged protests in various forms demanding identity cards and basic infrastructure. 'The Hans India' published articles on their issues.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) directed the Anakapalli District Collector to provide basic infrastructure to the tribal village at the earliest. Responding to this, District Collector Ravi Subhash Pattanshetti ordered the officials to take appropriate action.

Three months ago, a team of Narsipatnam RDO mandal level officials visited the village and submitted a report to the District Collector. Based on the report, the District Collector held a meeting with mandal level officials on Tuesday and directed them to issue identity cards to the tribals.

In the presence of MRO Umamaheswara Rao, MPDO K Venkanna Babu, Jeelugulova village sarpanch Vanjari Gangaraju, villager K Govinda Rao, ration cards were distributed to seven families, voter ID cards to 14 persons, Aadhaar cards to 18 people.

The officials said the date of birth certificates of eight persons are in the village secretariat and they will be given soon to the tribals. Similarly, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee cards were distributed to seven families.

The villagers thanked the officials for providing ID cards and appealed to them to facilitate basic infrastructure in the village at the earliest.