Tribal people from the Agency areas of the district, under the aegis of various Adivasi organisations, have submitted a memorandum to Assistant Director of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, Ashok Vardhan, urging him not to allow the inclusion of six villages of Nathavaram mandal under the Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority (VMRDA).
Andhra Pradesh Adivasi Joint Action Committee (APAJAC) leaders Ramarao Dora, Gangaraju Sonai, Radhakrishna Kuda, Suryanarayana Javvadi and Shiva Kesava met Dr. Vardhan in Paderu on Thursday and informed him that Dharmavaram Agraharam, Chammachinta, Sarugudu, Kuruvada, Kalavavoddhu Sarabhavaram and Pottinagannadora Palem in Nathavaram mandal are clearly mentioned as Fifth Schedule villages.
They noted that G.O. MS no. 20 issued by the State government on March 23 includes these villages under the extended jurisdiction of VMRDA. Merger of these villages in the VMRDA directly infringes upon the Panchayat (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA) as well as The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, (FRA of 2006) that grant special and exclusive powers to Adivasi gram sabhas. GO 20 is plainly violative of these seminal statutes, they said.
They also noted that 91 villages that are predominantly adivasi and are justifiably seeking inclusion in the Fifth Schedule since many decades have also been included in the list of mandals to be merged with the VMRDA. A total of 553 such Adivasi villages in the State that ought to have been included many decades ago in the Fifth Schedule were kept out due to political indifference and bureaucratic negligence, they alleged.
