Malkangiri: The state government has taken up a host of welfare projects and schemes for tribals, but many tribal families in Malkangiri district have been deprived of getting benefits of the schemes.
For example, scores of tribals have not been provided land pattas under Forest Dwellers Act. Owing to anomalies in land pattas and Aadhaar cards, they are deprived of government benefits, a report said.
This has happened in Dangaguda village in Dudameta panchayat under Chitrakonda block. In many cases, caste titles of tribals mentioned in land pattas do not match in the information provided in their Aadhaar cards.
The village is inhabited by tribal communities like Koya, Bonda, Didai, Goud and Halba. They have been living in the village for over 60 years. The administration had conducted a survey of the tribals who had been living here between 1960 and 1962.
Land pattas were provided to them in 1966. When land pattas were issued to Halba tribals, their caste was mentioned wrong as Gaud.
Till date, the anomaly has not been sorted out, villagers lamented. Their Aadhaar cards and voter cards have Halba as their title while land pattas mention Gaud as their caste.
Due to such mismatch in information, we are unable to get tokens from paddy mandis, pension and stipends for our children, they said.
For a long time, they have been urging the administration to settle the issue, but to no avail. Consequently, the tribals have been going though hardships without getting benefits of the government schemes.
ADM Birasen Pradhan said that the case is related to land settlement. People having such discrepancies in records should file a revision petition through an advocate at the collectorate. The issue will be sorted out, he added.
PNN