ADILABAD : The Telangana Adivasi Girijana Sangam (TAGS) leaders organised a meeting in Ramleela Grounds on Thursday in the town and demanded the government to issue pattas for tribals, who have been cultivating (Podu cultivation) forest land for decades.Addressing the meeting, Badrachalam MLA Sunnam Rajiah said the then Andhra Pradesh government issued pattas in 2005 to the tribal farmers but the present government was forcefully planting plants in their lands in the name of Haritha Haaram programme.
Though the tribals have been cultivating these lands for decades, the government was not issuing pattas and was filing false case against them, he alleged.CM K Chandrasekhar Rao had announced that soon three acres of cultivable land would be distributed to Dalitha Basthi but till now not an inch of land was given to them, he said.
Sunnam demanded government to take steps for the issuance of pattas to tribal farmers. Latter, they took out a rally from Ramleela Grounds to the collector’s office and staged protest in front of Collectorate. MLA Rajaiah, TAGS district president K Ganapathi, B Dattatri and other leaders submitted a memorandum to the JC K Krishna Reddy who assured that he would look into the issue.