The Hindu Business Line : Jairam Ramesh reviews tribal welfare schemes

While the buzzword nationally is SEZs for a variety of sectors, Andhra Pradesh seems to have established a SEZ of different kind. "The State has become the biggest SEZ for naxalites," Mr Jairam Ramesh, senior Congress leader and Union Minister of State for Commerce, said.

"And the SEZ is exporting naxalites to the neighbouring Chhattisgarh. The Chief Minister of that State told me that all of the naxalites operating there speak Telugu," he said, taking part in a review meeting of `Girijana Pragati' here on Thursday.

The Minister, who represents the State in the Rajya Sabha, was taking stock of the tribal uplift schemes in some north Telengana districts that were supported by the funds from his MPLADS funds.

"Alienation of land is the root cause of naxalism. Everything appears calm, but the problem persists," he said.

Knowing this fully, he had decided to utilise his MPLADS funds in the tribal areas that breed Naxalism, first in the north Telangana districts and later expanded it to Chenchu areas in Mahboobnagar, Kurnool and Prakasam districts.

Stating that the cases booked against the encroachers of tribal lands were very few, he said about 50 per cent of 72,000 such cases were settled in favour of non-tribals.

"Isn't it a sad commentary on the administration?" he wondered. He asked the officials to see whether some of those could be reopened to extend justice to the tribals.

Form PLA

In order to achieve this, the State needed to form a PLA (Para Legal Army) on the lines of the PLA of China, roping in the fresh law graduates.

Earlier, Mr K. Raju, Principal Secretary (Rural Development), gave an account of the department's initiatives in empowering the rural power, particularly tribals, with irrigable land and providing them legal help, if need be.

Realising the fact that the tribals were losing control over their land holdings and that land held a prominent role in eradicating poverty, the Government had decided to include the land component in all the development initiatives. "This will give them social and economic justice," he said.

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