September 22, 2025

Exciting news from Andhra Pradesh! On Monday, September 22, Tribal Welfare Minister Gummadi Sandhyarani told the Assembly that the state government is working on proposals to declare 496 villages as Scheduled Areas. These villages are special because their tribal population is more than 50%. Right now, the proposals are being checked and examined carefully. Answering a question from MLA Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, Minister Sandhyarani explained how the Government of India sets strict rules to declare Scheduled Areas. These include having a high tribal population, ease of administration like district or block status, enough size, and economic backwardness compared to nearby areas. The process is quite a journey! First, district collectors send proposals to the Andhra Pradesh Tribal Advisory Council. Then the State Cabinet reviews them, and finally, the Governor sends the recommendations to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs. The Minister also shared that a report was requested from the Anakapalli District Collector about adding villages in the Madugula constituency to Scheduled Areas. They found nine gram panchayats, covering 60 villages, with over 25,000 tribal residents ready for this upgrade. Big money is flowing for tribal welfare! This year, the state budgeted a massive ₹8,159 crore. Some spicy highlights include building 1,069 km of roads under the vibrant Adavi Thalli Baata scheme costing ₹1,005 crore, setting up BSNL towers with ₹3.45 crore to improve connectivity, and giving every tribal family 200 free units of electricity each month under the Babu Jagjivan Ram scheme. Minister Sandhyarani firmly stated the government’s strong commitment to boosting tribal education, healthcare, jobs, transport, and basic facilities. And guess what? More exciting welfare plans are cooking and will soon be rolled out to bring even brighter smiles to tribal communities. In short, Andhra Pradesh is on a mission to empower its tribal regions like never before, with big plans and big money lighting the way!

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Tags: Andhra pradesh, Tribal welfare, Scheduled areas, Gummadi sandhyarani, Government schemes, Tribal development,