Jarawa comes out of forest, demands food
Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, Oct 03: In a shocking development, a group of ten Jarawa today came out of Forest of Kadamtala and lodged their protest at Panchayat of Kadamtala. The Jarawa tribes were repeatedly demanding to meet the Lt. Governor to lodge their protest of shortage of food items.
The Pradhan of Kadamatala immediately informed this matter to the Deputy Commissioner of North and Middle Andaman, who directed R Meneka, the Assistant Commissioner of Rangat to reach Kadamtala and meet the Jarawa youths.
A large number of villagers gathered at Panchayat Bhawan to see Jarawa tribes, who were repeatedly saying that they want to meet Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The Jarawa youth who led the protest today, Mr. Afee today told the gathering that “We want to meet the Lt. Governor so that we can tell our problems to him. We don’t have food, we are in great distress. We eat pigs, potatoes and fish but nowadays there is severe shortage of food inside jungle. We often sleep empty belly but do not get any food item from the babus. We know Government (sarkar) send a lot of food items and cloth for us but we don’t get anything. We want our children to study in school, like children of Onge. We also want to become (bada admi) rich.”
When Andaman Sheekha Contacted the R Meneka, the Assistant Commissioner of Rangat she said that there was no protest at all at Kadamata. “First thing I must say that there was no protest. They said two things to me first, they wanted to sharpen their weapon, which we agreed and secondly they wanted dry ration and spices, on which I told them that the secretary of Tribal Welfare will visit them soon and they can place this demand infront of him. Not even single time the Jarawa told me that they want to meet the Lt. Governor,” the Assistant Commissioner maintained.
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