Raipur:About 1500 tribals from Rowghat Panchayat of Kanker district reached Raipur on Tuesday to push for their long-pending demand of merger of their panchayat with Narayanpur district.
Tribals had travelling 300 km on foot, starting the journey from October 21 and it took them six days to reach the state capital. A delegation of the tribals will meet Governor AnusuiyaUikey on Tuesday afternoon and inform her thematter which has been pending since 2007. The tribals had gathered at the Indoor stadium where they cooked food and had lunch.
Tribal of 58 villages in Rowghat panchayat have reached Raipur to meet the Governor, demanding merger of their panchayat with Narayanpur.
Coordinator Nirmal Nag said that Rowghatpanchayat is just 20-km far from Narayanpurdistrict headquarters while they need to visit 150 km distance to reach Kanker district headquarters for any work. Besides, people of Rowghat are socially more attached to Narayanpur than Kanker. People here also depend more on Narayanpur when it comes to education, health, trade etc. So it is better to merge Rowghat with Narayanpur.
Nag said that the state government has been blaming it on Centre saying the power of separating an area from a block and merger it with other district lies with Centre. The state can form districts according to the state government, said Nag.
The tribals from Kanker had come with cooking materials to prepare their food. It is to be mentioned, hundreds of tribals from Narayanpurdistrict had recently reached Raipur on foot after covering around 350 km demanding implementation of PESA and panchayat status. Raipur district administration had arranged food for them.
