Mangalore, September 9: Members of the Koraga community staged a day-long protest against irregularities in the delivery of services to them and delay in the appointment tribal officers here on Thursday.
The protest was organised jointly by the Koraga Abhivridhi Okoota (Karnataka-Kerala), Koraga Zilla Samiti and Samgra Grameena Ashrama. A large number of people gathered in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner participated in it.
Mangalore MLA and the Deputy Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, N. Yogish Bhat, visited the venue and assured Koraga community of speedy action on the demands put forth by them.
Baalraj Kodikal, member of the Okkooa, said that they had not received "nutritious food" which was to be supplied by the Integrated Tribal Development Project to the Koraga community through anganwadis this monsoon. Under the scheme, the food is to be supplied to Koraga families only during the monsoon, he said, and even that had not been provided this year.
He said that for the last six months, the post of ITDP officer was lying vacant after the previous officer had been removed for irregularities worth lakhs of rupees. Posts of tribal inspectors were also lying vacant for the last five years, causing huge difficulties for the Koraga community. Mr. Baalraj said that due to this, people could not get enough information about government schemes, and there was no one process applications and so on.
Another major demand of the community was land. While the Koraga community had been allotted 600 acres in the neighbouring Udupi district, only 70 families in Dakshina Kannada had been given about one acre of land with title deeds, Mr. Baalraj said.
Deputy Commisioner N.S. Channappa Gowda accepted a memorandum from the protestors and said that he would rectify the problem of supplying nutritious food.
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