Dalits, tribals decry forest department curbs

Chittoor: Braving the hot summer, petitioners arrived at district headquarters from far off places and submitted their petitions to Joint Collector Bharat Narayan Gupta at weekly grievance cell organised at the Collectorate here on Monday. He was assisted by District Revenue Officer Vijay Chander.

About 150 Dalit and tribal families from Kottur in BN Kandriga mandal have staged a dharna at the Collectorate against officials of the Forest department for not allowing them to cultivate lands which were allotted to them by the then State government two decades ago.

They came down heavily on forest officials for denying their right on lands which were abetting forest. Responding to their protest, the Joint Collector assured Dalit and tribal families that he would resolve their issue at the earliest. He spoke to forest officials of Tirupati Division and sought explanation from them as to why they were denying victims to cultivate their lands. On the advice of Joint Collector, protestors called off dharna.

Speaking to The Hans India here on Monday, the Joint Collector said that District Collector Siddharth Jain has been conducting the grievance cells at various places in the district to facilitate the petitioners so that there is no need for them to come all the way to Chittoor. He instructed mandal-level revenue officials to create awareness about grievance cells which were being conducted at different places in the district.