Fulfil poll promises, Tribal JAC tells Chandrababu Naidu

Srikakulam: “We are against the ruling TDP government but not against each other,” said Tribal Unions’ Joint Action Committee (JAC) and fishermen community leaders. The leaders of two communities conducted meetings separately at the guest houses of the revenue and roads & buildings departments here on Tuesday to discuss Monday’s incidents.

Speaking on the occasion, fishermen leaders Duda Sudhakar, M Phalguna Raju, Ch Suryanarayana, M Sriramulu and M Narasimhamurthi alleged that impersonating themselves as tribal members, some anti-social elements damaged their relay huger protest camp. They clarified that they were not against existing tribes and they were fighting against the ruling TDP government to fulfil its election promises.

Recalling the assurances given by N Chandrababu Naidu in 2014 when he was in the Opposition, they said that Naidu had promised to include fishermen in the Scheduled Tribes list during his campaign in Palasa and Srikakulam Assembly segments. Now, the same leader forgot his own promise, hence, they were protesting against the government, they added.

In the afternoon, the fishermen staged a dharna in front of the Collectorate and also tried to lay siege to it. But the police foiled their attempt.
The tribal union leaders alleged that without having any scientific support, the TDP government passed a resolution to include the Boya and Valmiki communities into the list of scheduled tribes (ST). They found fault with Satyapal Committee’s recommendations on the two castes.

The committee did not consider it and studied the conditions of tribes in the Agency area and the committee tried to protect political interests of TDP, they charged. They demanded the enhancement of the ST quota to 15 per cent from the existing six per cent which was insufficient as per tribals’ population. In all, 25,000 tribes remained unemployed even though they were having degrees like B Tech, B Ed etc. At this juncture, inclusion of new castes into the ST list was illegal and they warned that they would oppose it.

Coming down heavily against the Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan over his announcement to extend his support to the fishermen’s agitation and his proposed visit to Srikakulam on February 21, they suggested him to acquaint himself with the hardships being faced by the scheduled tribes in remote areas. They warned that they would oppose Pawan’s tour and prevent him from entering Srikakulam. Ridiculing Pawan Kalyan, the JAC leaders said that dealing with issues like reservations was not like acting in films.

In the wake of Monday’s incidents, police force was deployed at two the meeting venues to avoid any untoward incident as a part of preventive measure. Meanwhile, police registered two criminal cases against the tribal unions agitation on Tuesday as it turned violent on Monday. “We registered two criminal cases against organisers of the agitation at One Town limits in Srikakulam city and investigation is on regarding the damage of fishermen camp and burning of material,” Superintendent of Police Dr CM Trivikrama Varma.