District Collector Sumit Kumar on Monday (February 24) directed the officials to accord top priority to the grievances submitted by the tribal communities at the Public Grievance Redressal Forum held at the new Spandana Hall in the Collectorate here.
The residents of tribal hamlets from Tavanampalle, Chowdepalle, Gudipala, and Bangarupalem mandals attended the grievances cell on Monday and submitted representations, complaining of land encroachments and seeking allocation of land titles, and seeking removal of illegal occupation of agricultural lands, and lack of power supply in several tribal hamlets.
The people of the Krishnapuram ST hamlet of Tavanampalle mandal complained to the Collector about the alleged harassment by forest officials though they had been cultivating land for several generations. The families from Chowdepalle mandal alleged that the agricultural laborers were being harassed with police cases over a seven-acre assigned land which they had been tilling for several years.
In Gudipala mandal on the Chittoor-Tamil Nadu border, some 30 families from Mandi Krishnapuram village deplored that a person from Tamil Nadu had been intimidating them to vacate their lands.
Vice-sarpanch of Thumbakuppam panchayat, in Bangarupalem mandal, Chiranjeevi urged the Collector to initiate steps for erecting 10 electricity poles to provide regular power supply to the ST hamlets in the panchayat.
The villagers further urged Collector Sumit Kumar to interfere in the injustices faced by them. Interacting with them, the Collector said that he would prompt the concerned officials to conduct inspections at their respective hamlets to initiate necessary measures.
Mr. Sumit Kumar told them that the grievances cell would serve as an important platform for the downtrodden communities to bring their problems to the notice of the government.
