The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Tribals make the most of `three tents'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 03, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Others

Tribals make the most of `three tents'

By B. Madhu Gopal

Girijans throng the three-tent programme, organised by the District Police, at G. Madugula in Visakhapatnam district on Tuesday.

G. MADUGULA (VISAKHAPATNAM DT.), NOV. 2. This mandal headquarters draws hundreds of tribals every Tuesday. Girijans from remote villages converge here for the weekly shandy to sell their produce and purchase their provisions for the week.

This Tuesday, hundreds of tribals who came to the shandy stayed back till the afternoon to get themselves examined by doctors, hand over petitions seeking solutions to their grievances or simply to see and hear the police cultural troupe members perform song and dance sequences and enlighten them on various issues concerning their (tribal) welfare.

Seven doctors from the US, four local doctors and other medical staff, who came here on behalf of the Love and Care Ministries, were seen examining the patients. There were interpreters to translate the problems of the patients to the American doctors.

Police lauded

The Girijans appreciated the efforts of the police as they need not go all the way to Paderu or Araku to pour out their woes to the officials concerned. "We have to spend Rs.50 to go to those places and even after that there is no guarantee that the officials would take our petitions,'' said one of them.

The cultural troupe enlightened tribals on the need to conserve forests, proper utilisation of forest produce and environmental awareness. One of the troupe members performed dances to songs from popular Telugu films and caught the attention of the gathering.

The common complaints at the medical camp were joint pains, skin diseases and eye ailments.

The three-tent programme is the brainchild of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, T. Krishna Prasad. He had introduced the programme during his earlier tenure as Superintendent of Police during 1993-97. The objective of the programme then was to wean girijans away from naxalite influence and gain the support of the former.

``The first tent is to create awareness among tribals on various issues concerning their welfare. In the second, they are being examined by specialist doctors and cases which need surgery would be referred to the city for treatment. In the third tent, petitions would be received from the tribals and to the extent possible the officials concerned would try to solve them on the spot. When immediate remedy was not possible they would be taken to the notice of the District Collector for speedy action,'' Mr. Krishna Prasad said.

Earlier, the three-tent programme was confined to Visakhapatnam district but now it would be extended to Vizianagaram and Srikakulam.

The Superintendent of Police, Sanjay Kumar Jain, and the Narsipatnam Officer on Special Duty, J. Muralidhar, supervised the programme.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh

News Update

Stories in this Section

Tribals make the most of `three tents'

Where splinter groups, trade unions fight for supremacy

Two high-yielding fruit varieties to be released soon

Steps afoot for land distribution: Minister

Drug control officers raid four medical shops

SHGs told to avail of low interest facility

Tribals force House panel to hear them