Telangana: Erukalas demand Rs 500 cr for ‘Ekalavya Corporation’

Hyderabad: Members of the Erukala (ST) community demanded the Telangana Government implement its poll promise of allocating Rs 500 crore for ‘Ekalavya (Erukala) STs corporation,’ as promised by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Chevella for a public meeting before the Lok Sabha elections.

‘Ekalavya Unity Conference’ was held in the Arts College of Osmania University on Monday, August 5, where intellectuals and leaders from the Erukala community put forward a few demands before Congress MLC Balmuri Venkat, who participated as the chief guest on the occasion.

They demanded the state government to immediately establish the Ekalavya (Erukala) Corporation and to appoint a chairman for it.

The community members stated that despite enjoying the reservations, they were still backward when it came to socio-economic and political empowerment and were left behind in jobs and education because of that reason.

They urged the state government to build a hostel for Erukala students to reside while studying in Hyderabad and to give preference to Erukala youth under the Ambedkar Overseas Scholarship Scheme for studying abroad.

The Erukalas alleged that though the community members were assigned lands between 1 to 2 acres in the villages by governments in the past, in many areas land grabbers have been occupying those lands illegally and by force.

They also appealed to the state government to give them adequate representation in politics, as they claimed, that there were no people’s representatives from their community in the government.

Addressing the conference, Balmuri Venkat assured the Erukalas that the state government would certainly establish the corporation and that at least two women would be given representation.

He also assured them that the statue of Ekalavya would be erected at Tank Bund, and told them that he would represent their issues to chief minister A Revanth Reddy.