Include Poosala Sangham in DNT: TSPS

WARANGAL: Members of the Telangana State Poosala Sangham (TSPS) have urged Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao to include people of the Poosala community in the Denotified Nomadic Tribes (DNT) and in the Most Backward Classes (MBC) so that their children can get education and employment opportunities.

TSPS president Kola Srinivas, in a statement released here on Sunday, said that around three lakh people of the Poosala community, were dependent on the traditional occupation of selling beads, ribbons, bangles, combs, pearls and repairing umbrellas and locks and they were facing several hardships.

After conducting a study on the Poosala community, whose socio-economic, political and educational conditions need to be improved, the Vennelakanti Raghavaiah Committee, Anantha Raman Committee and Muralidhar Rao Commission recommended the state and central governments include them in the DNT.

As per suggestions of the National Nomadic Tribes Commission, the Andhra Pradesh government included Poosala Sangham in the DNT under serial number 21 but the Telangana government has ignored them.

The state government has announced that it will distribute Rs one lakh assistance to people engaged in traditional occupations as part of the decennial celebrations. If Poosala Community is included in the DNT, it will uplift their condition, he said.

He appealed to the state government to consider the recommendations of the various committees, who studied the condition of the Poosala community, and take immediate steps to include them in the DNT and provide them Rs 5 lakh group insurance coverage and distribute two-wheelers to them so that that they can move to different villages and sell their traditional goods.