MALKANGIRI: Tribals of the Konda Reddy community staged a demo in front of the collectorate on Saturday demanding inclusion of the community in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category.
The community leaders alleged that while some people of the community - who settled down in Andhra Pradesh prior to the separation of Odisha from Madras Presidency of Visakhapatnam district in 1936 - have been given ST status by the Andhra Pradesh Government, tribals of the same community residing in Malkangiri are yet to be included in the ST category. Sans ST status, they are unable to avail any of the Government benefits. Tribals of the Konda Reddy community have been residing in Paplur village under Kalimela police limits here. Stating that this village in Malkangiri is remote and under-developed, president of the District Konda Reddy Development Sangha, Rama Rao Majhi said Maoists have taken advantage of these problems and built a strong base in the area. Majhi added that although the Konda Reddy community is treated as ST in Andhra Pradesh, they continue to be included among socially educationally backward classes instead of ST here.
Earlier, a PIL was also filed in the Orissa High Court by one R Srinivas Rao of Malkangiri seeking its intervention for the community’s inclusion in the Constitution (Scheduled Tribe) Order for the State.
“A study was conducted by the SC/ST Research and Training Institute in Bhubaneswar in 2005. The Tribe Advisory Council of SC/ST Development Department of Odisha Government had in 2007 confirmed that Konda Reddys were tribal and recommended Scheduled Tribe status for them instead of socially educationally backward class status,” the petition, filed through advocate Kshirod Rout, said. Rao said he had applied to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, who had, in a letter on June 4, 2012, requested the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to take action.
The community’s mother tongue is Telugu, but they can speak and write in Odia.
