Goudus living in agency areas boycotts household survey over ST status issue
The leaders demanded the State government to issue proper directions to the household survey enumerators to record their caste as ‘Goudu’ and issue ST caste certificates to the community members.
Kothagudem: The Agency Goudu Sangham has called upon the community members to boycott the ongoing comprehensive household survey. The community leaders complained that the enumerators have been violating their right of self-certification by refusing to record their community in the survey form’s caste column under Scheduled Tribes category.
The leaders demanded the State government to issue proper directions to the household survey enumerators to record their caste as ‘Goudu’ and issue ST caste certificates to the community members.
Speaking to Telangana Today, Sangham State president Narati Prasad said the community members have been living in the agency areas since the time of British and Nizam rule depending on podu cultivation and collection of forest resources.
According to the Constitution, Schedule Tribes Act, gazette notification issued in the years 1931, 1932, 1936, 1950, 1957, 1976 and 2014 by the respective governments it was stated that the community members should be issued ST caste certificate registered in serial number 7 in the list of tribal castes, he explained.
Prasad said that in the gazette notification of the Telangana State Reorganisation Act, 2014 Goudu community (agency tracts) was included under ST category with the serial number 7. The comprehensive caste survey-2024 form also referred to the Goudu caste in tribal castes in annexure 8.
The community members living in agency areas like Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, Godavari districts of AP and in Bhadrachalam have been issued ST caste certificates to agency Goudus in the past, he noted.
He demanded the government to allow the community members to record their caste under ST category. The community members living under the limits of ITDA, Bhadrachalam and ITDA Eturunagaram would not take part in the household survey until their rights are not protected, he added.
