Adilabad: The Telangana government is stressing on the generation of solar power for houses in interior tribal areas as the forest department is not allowing the erection of poles to supply power, citing the reserve forest rules.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy recently invited the tribal MLAs for a visit to his native village, Kondareddypalle. There, all houses have solar panels installed on the roofs to meet their power requirements. By this, the village had emerged as a model village and ae fully solar-powered second hamlet in the country.
The Chief Minister told the tribal MLAs that with solar power, the families run all the power gadgets and devices, including fans, refrigerators, and air conditioners.
Revant Reddy advised the tribal-belt legislators to focus on implementing the solar energy project in their respective constituencies. Solar energy, he said, is the best option for tribals living in the forest areas.
The CM’s response came when the MLAs complained that forest officials were not allowing the erection of poles to supply power to the households in their constituencies, and sought Revant Reddy’s intervention to solve the problem.
Revanth Reddy also asked the tribal MLAs to apply online on the central government’s portal for the Ministry of Forests and Environment and get its permission for laying new roads to the villages in interior areas.
The CM promised to pay the required money to the forest department to compensate for the deforestation and get the clearance for laying new roads.
The CM also asked tribal MLAs to meet the special chief secretary for tribal welfare, Sabyasachi Ghosh, and discuss the problems faced by tribals in their respective assembly constituencies and resolve them.
Khanapur MLA Vedma Bojju, who was among the team that met the CM, told Deccan Chronicle that they brought up issues such as forest staff not allowing the construction of Indiramma houses, or laying new roads and borewells and electricity poles in the forest areas where Adivasis have been living for long years.
Revant Reddy told the tribal MLAs that the state government is committed to the integrated development of the tribal and agency areas in the state.
Bojju said forest staff stopped the construction of more than 250 Indiramma houses sanctioned to the Adivasis, citing the reserve forest rules.
Some of the Adivasis selected for the housing scheme are facing hardships as they have no shelter. The forest officials stopped the construction of Indiramma houses midway at the lintel level. These adivasis had dismantled their huts to construct the Indiramma houses in the same place, and are now without a home. Some of them are taking shelter at their relatives’ houses in other places.
The Chief Minister promised to look into these issues and resolve them at the earliest.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
