ADILABAD : The annual Keslapur Nagoba Jatara ‘darbar’, held to address the problems of Adivasis, seems to have lost its relevance as it has turned into a political arena over the past couple of years.
‘’The darbar once resembled a small village panchayat meeting but now has turned into a public meeting venue where politicians deliver speeches rather than try to solve tribes’ problems,’’ lamented Attram Bhujanga Rao, an Adivasi.
He said that since pre-Independence days, elders of Mesram community had been organising the darbar to discuss temple development and the problems of Adivasis. Till recently, the district collector and superintendent of police came down to attend it, received petitions and tried to settle them. However, in the last couple of years, politicians started treating the darbar as a platform to score political mileage.
Except making speeches they did little to mitigate our woes, Bhujanga Rao said. What is more pathetic is that officials do not even have an account of the petitions they received in past few years.