Credit for helping Tribal people get their rights goes to the Central Government as for providing patta to them of the forest land on which they lived and survived for years was of the Centre.
Also, for providing road, water, electricity in to remote rural areas the Centre provided crores of rupees to Chhattisgarh Government. The Centre is now providing money to even join smaller hamlets having 250-strong population with roads under Prime Minister Rural Road Scheme. Also, skill enhancement scheme is started in Tribal areas to train youth with a view to encourage the employment in rural areas rural areas itself, said union Minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh while speaking at a public meeting organised at Bhairamgarh in Bijapur district Thursday marking the commencement of the fourth leg of the Parivartan Yatra.
In his address, son of former Prime Minister lal Bahur Shashtri and special invitee to AICC, Anil Shashtri said Congress is the single political entity which has so far been able to keep people together binding them in to a single strand.
leaders like Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, lal Bahadur Shashtri, Mrs Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and others took ample steps for the development of rural areas whereas UPA chairperson Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also initiated a number of welfare schemes for the betterment of children, women, youth, for helping students in education, and for ensuring availability of food, drinking water and electricity to the common man. According to Shashtri, now it is the responsibility of the party workers to take these schemes to grassroots level.
State Congress president Nand Kumar Patel accused the state government of becoming autocratic in style and killing innocent tribal people in the name of fighting against insurgency in the State. The party also termed the announcement of the State Government ordering judicial probe in to the recent Edasmeta encounter in which 8 villagers including 3 innocent children were gunned down late Friday night just as its eyewash. Patel urged people of Bastar to vote out the BJP Government.
Notably, the State Congress resumed its Parivartan Yatra at Bhairamgarh commencing fourth phase of its mass contact programme intended to expose the misdeeds of the State Government and at the same time make people aware of the welfare schemes of the Central UPA Government led by congress.