Tribal employees seek holiday on August 9

HYDERABAD: The Andhar Pradesh Tribal Employees Federation has appealed to the state government to declare a holiday on August 9, the World Tribal Day.APTEF founder-president Pandu B Naik said that in 1987 the United Nations Organisation  had declared August 9 as the World Tribal Day and many countries across the world had been observing the day as a holiday and conducting review meetings on tribal development every year. But in India the day was not observed even after three decades, he regretted.Among the other demands the APTEF made included allocation of special funds for improvement of the living standards of Adivasis, celebration of the birth anniversary of revolutionary tribal leader Komaram Bheem on October 22 on the lines of  national leaders’ birth anniversaries, margin money and other financial assistance from AP Scheduled Tribes Co-operative Finance Corporation (TRICOR)  to tribes whose population in the state is about 80 lakh. APTEF president N Lxman Naik and its members were present.