Land disputes in agency areas deepen

The Indian Express, July 18, 1996.

Express News Service

Eluru, July 17: The situation in the agency region here was tense over the land disputes between Girijans and non-Girijans. The Girijans have been preventing the non-Girijans from carrying out the agricultural works.

Meanwhile, the government orders treating the Dalit as non-Girijans deepened the problem. The non-Girijans and Scheduled Caste people were taking up an agitation for their rights over lands. While the officials were trying to pacify both the groups by settling the land disputes.

Six teams of officials were pressed into service to survey the lands under dispute and pattas being prepared to distribute poramboke land to the Girijans in the agency region.

The officials had taken up the task of seizing the lands under the occupation of non-Girijans. With this, agricultural operations in the agency region were stalled. At last, the Rytu Sangh leaders represented to the Collector that they had no objection to distribute the banjar lands to Girijans.

Polavaram MLAP. Singanna Dora signed the agreement in the presence of Minister Kotagiri Vidyadhara Rao in this matter. The ryots delegation handed over the proposals to the district collector D. Ramakrishna on Saturday.

The officials heaved a sign of relief as the MLA signed the agreement on the land distribution. They feel that if the non-Girijans are bound to the agreement they entered the survey of the land would be easy for them.

The revenue officials have to visit the Girijan village and survey the lands and seize the surplus lands. The programme was postponed as the district collector D. Ramakrishna went to Pune for training.

Meanwhile, the survey of land in the agency region which was under the possession of non-Girijans was carried out by the officials. The officials were trying to distribute the seized surplus land of 6.4 acres to Girijans immediately.

The officials were verifying the records of the lands in Orrinkalapadu village as the Girijans expressed doubts over the possession of the land by the non-Girijans.

The officials are trying to distribute the seized lands immediately to the eligible Girijans to avoid the non-Girijans get stay orders from the courts. Recently a non-Girijan got stay order over the land seized by the government in Panduvarigudem.

The officials are fearing that they have to face the wrath of Girijans if the land distribution was kept pending with the litigations. The dispute over the possession of land between Girijans and non-Girijans had an impact on the lands belonging to Scheduled Caste people.

The government has distributed the forest banjar lands to Scheduled Castes people earlier. A large number of Scheduled Caste people are cultivating the agency lands in Polavaram, Buttayagudem and Jeelugumilli mandals. But under the 1/70 Act of the government they were considered as non-Girijans.

With this the officials are trying to seize their lands. The Dalits in Buttayagudem have taken up agitation over the abolition of D pattas in Busarajupalli village.

They staged relay hunger-strikes at the Buttayagudem mandal revenue office urging the government to consider the Scheduled Caste people who are residing in agency regions as Konda Harijans. When asked about the lands seizure joint collector Sudharani said the seizure of lands of Harijans was stopped.

She said there was a possibility of the government sparing the seizure of lands belonging to Scheduled Caste people. She said efforts were on to see that the Girijans did not prevent the agricultural works of non-Girijans. She expressed the confidence that the government measures were increasing the confidence among the Girijans.

Koya tribes frustrated in efforts to own lands

July 29,1996.

By R.J. Rajendra Prasad.

HYDERABAD , July 28: .. parties often advise the banned peoples war Group to join the main stream and achieve their objective of serving the records through the existing system of laws. But the experience of the Koya tribesmen of West Godavari district, who were able to produce land records through the assistance of SAKTI a Non-Governmental Organization, to establish their ownership under the Land Transfer Regulation of 1970 has been one of frustration. This is because of the nexus between the politicians, bureaucrats and non-tribal landloards, which has forced the tribals to take to their arrows in a primitive form of protest that resulted in the death of a non-tribal farmer on June 30 last.

There are 101 villages in the Scheduled Areas of West Godavari district. Dr. P. Sivaramakrishna director of SAKTI, engaged educated Koya youth and painstakingly collected land records pertaining to these villages for the year 1932. Then volunteers from this group went into the tribal villages and read out the names from these records which showed several tribal families that they in fact, were the actual landowners. The non-tribals responded by burning land records in the offices of the Settlement Courts.

The Regulation 1 of 1970 incorporates a presumption clause, saying that any immovable property in possession of a person, who is not a tribal, would be presumed to have been acquired by him by transfer from a person belonging to a Scheduled Tribe. This regulation also bans land transfer from one non-tribal to another non-tribal. A non-tribal farmer is now obliged to prove that he acquired the land before 1970. Further there is the problem of Assessed Waste Dry (AWD) land and government poromboke land. If the intention of the government was to protect the tribals from exploitation. It follows that the AWD and poromboke also should have been assigned only to tribals. These two aspects are sought to be enforced by tribals with the help of SAKTI however, this has led social tensions as the non-tribal landlards are fiercely resisting these moves.

The Assembly debate on the tribal conflict showed that a solution Is not yet in sight, be­cause a Cabinet Sub-Committee is to tour the affected villages and strive to solve the problem peacefully. The CPI stand, as explained by Mr. Vanka Sathyanarayana, was that marginal farmers owning less than 2.5 acres of wet and five acres of dry land should be exempted from the purview of the Regulation 1 of 1970. Since non-tribal farmers cannot sell their lands except to a tribal, the Government should purchase these lands at market rates, just as market rates were paid to farmers whose lands were taken over for the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and the Srisailam and Somasila irrigation projects, al about Rs.20,000 per acre, and the land so taken over could be distributed among the tribal.

The CPI(M) is however, against any amendment to Regulation 1 of 1970. And the CPI (M) also wants to protest the small and marginal non-tribal FARMERS CULTIVATING LANDS. As Mr. Bodepudi Venkateswara Rao explained it, marginal farmers belonging to Scheduled Castes should be allowed to cultivate lands under their occupation, with the consent of tribals. The tribal would be persuaded not to challenge the marginal farmers sights through cuasets so that the status . can continue.

The problem today is that about 50 per cent land in the Scheduled Areas has already passes on the non-tribal farmers during the past 30 years, despite so many regulations in force in favour of tribals. The tribal region along the banks of the Godavari , the "Dandakaranya" area, is the main support base for the People's War Group, which has been implementing its own version of land distribution by forcing bigger farmers to vacate the lands. The West Godavari experiment is in fact an opportunity for the State Government to show that land issues can be resolved through petitions to District Collectors and Settlement Courts. The move to amend Regulation 1 of 1970 is, however, being opposed by social activists, on the ground that since people have been able to circumvent the most stringent of Regulaztions as it is, any further dilution would only drive the tribals out of the forest areas.

The tribal point of view is getting support from people like Dr. B.S. Sharma, a foreever Commissioner of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, who visited West Godavari district, and who are supporting the NGOs engaged in restoring land to tribals. Ms. Medha Patkar is also scheduled to tour the area.