Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Adilabad, Payal Shankar, has sharply criticized the Congress-led Telangana state administration, accusing the government of neglecting long-pending fee reimbursement arrears for higher education students and mishandling complex tribal land disputes across the erstwhile Adilabad district, according to coverage by The Hans India.
Addressing a press conference in Adilabad, Shankar highlighted that hundreds of private degree and engineering colleges across northern Telangana face severe operational strain due to delays in the state treasury releasing post-matric scholarship and fee reimbursement funds. The legislator warned that delayed fund disbursements have placed thousands of students from underprivileged, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and backward-class communities at risk of academic disruption.
Shankar also addressed escalating land ownership disputes involving traditional forest dwellers and the state forest department under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. He alleged that legitimate tribal cultivators possess unverified podu land applications that remain unresolved by local revenue authorities, creating administrative friction and rural unrest.
The opposition legislator demanded that the state cabinet convene a dedicated review session for tribal districts, expedite educational reimbursement allocations before the upcoming academic examinations, and order district collectors to conduct transparent ground surveys to ensure forest rights entitlements are honored without bureaucratic delay.
