Tribals who have been cultivating small portions of land for a sustainable living in some of the non-Scheduled Tribe villages and hamlets, predominantly inhabited by PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) such as the Khonds and the Konda Doras in Anakapalli district of Andhra Pradesh, are now a threatened lot. Any day a private person accompanied by a few government officials can move into their villages with earth movers and raze their settlement, which have been their homes since the last four to five decades. Post-bifurcation of the districts by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government, these mandals and villages have been carved out of the composite Visakhapatnam district to be now a part of Anakapalli district.
This is not the case with a few villages in Anakapalli; in all, this problem is present across 553 villages in Andhra Pradesh and 252 villages in Telangana, taking the total number to 805 villages, across the two Telugu-speaking States.
On January 26, 1950, when the Constitution came into force, the Fifth Schedule gave special protection to villages that were predominantly inhabited by tribals across various States. The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution catered to the entire tribal belt of the Northeast. The authorities had demarcated the Fifth Schedule areas, including in Andhra Pradesh, based on documents provided by British rulers.
The issue of tribals in non-ST villages and atrocities committed against them by non-tribals first came to the fore in Andhra Pradesh during the Srikakulam Naxal uprising in the 1970s.
The then Srikakulam District Collector B.N. Yugandhar and a few other civil servants such as B.D. Sarma and S.R. Sankaran, who looked beyond the law and order issue, realised that these villages, which are predominantly inhabited by tribals and set amid forest lands in the hills, were backward and qualified to be notified under the Fifth Schedule. This would give them the protection under rules enshrined in the Constitution. A report was sent both to the State and the Central governments.
Based on it, the Union Government had asked all State governments to identify such villages and send a report.
On March 10, 1976, then Chief Minister Jalagam Vengala Rao passed a resolution in the Cabinet, identifying 805 villages, and it was sent to the Union Government in 1980, and since then it has been gathering dust. Though other States such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had pursued the Union Government and got the resolution passed in the Union Cabinet with the President of India passing the order, Andhra Pradesh did not take any interest.
It was only in 2007, that the then Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy took up the issue, as that was one of the main agendas in peace talks with Naxalites in 2004. The issue was discussed in the Assembly, but YSR’s untimely death again closed the chapter, despite a valiant effort by Ajay Kumar of Fifth Schedule Sadhana Samithi (FSSS), who was supported by civil rights leaders including K. Balagopal of the Human Rights Forum.
Notifying a tribal village under the Fifth Schedule gives it protection. Primarily, being a tribal village, not an inch of land can be taken from them by any non-tribal or a private corporation. Even the natural resources cannot be exploited, as they are protected by a number of laws and Acts such as the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, the Forest Rights Act (FRA), the 1/70 of AP Government Act and the Samata judgment.
Once these villages are notified under the Fifth Schedule, the villages will be entitled to funds from the Tribal Sub-Plan, which can be utilised for development and they will come under the purview of the ITDAs (Integrated Tribal Development Authority).
Their cases can be settled at the sub-collector or Tehsildar level and they need not run from pillar to post at the civil courts. According to the Yugandhar Expert Group on Prevention of Alienation of Tribal Land, the Dhebar Commission and the Koneru Ranga Rao Committee reports, all the 805 villages qualify to be notified under the Fifth Schedule. They are composite tribal villages and located in forest areas. As per the 2011 census, the population comprises over 50% tribals.
Though Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has asked the ITDAs to prepare a fresh proposal, members of the FSSS and tribals allege that work is progressing at a snail’s pace.
