The Dalit Sankshema Seva Sangham (welfare association) has urged the Andhra Pradesh Government not to sell the land and properties of the Leather Industries Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (Lidcap), set up in the seventies to promote the welfare of tanners, and to take steps to improve the organisation.
In a statement, Masthan Rao, the general secretary, said thousands of tanners were dependent on the Lidcap and any move to weaken it would deprive them of their source of livelihood. Employees had not being paid for the past eight months while the tanners were going without work, he said.
He alleged that the higher officials of the Lidcap were in collusion with private companies and orders worth crores of rupees were being diverted.
He requested that the government immediately scrap the GO No 151 which would facilitate the selling off of the Lidcap assets.
