How cheating is going on

The GO on Bauxite mining was stalled days after three TDP tribal leaders were released by the CPI (Maoists) from over a week’s captivity. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had assured the kin of these leaders that no step would be taken without consent of the tribals. But his intention is very clear on Bauxite mining.

The intent of the government is clear in its decision to establish a toll-free number and a website for receiving public opinion, that too when most of the affected areas do not have access to even a telephone, leave alone access to the Internet. There are apprehensions that the voice of the tribals would be drowned in the deluge of responses by urban dwellers who look at tribals as an impediment to ‘development’.

The members of the tribes who would be uprooted from their homes and their way of life disrupted by the loss of hills and forests have been turning out in large numbers at every public meeting, cutting across the affiliations, to voice their concerns. They are unable to understand as to why these meetings are not being considered an opinion by the democratically elected government . They worrying about the style of Chandrababu*s government