A.P. Tribals lock horns with non-tribals over land
The Times of India , August 27, 1996.
News Service
Rajahmundry (East Godavari), Aug. 26 : Three weeks after a pitched battle in which tribals had vented their frustration at not being possessors of the land that legally should be theirs, tension continues in villages in this and the neighbouring West Godavari district.
The brewing resentment among the tribals had erupted into a pitched battle in Paidavarigudem village in West Godavari on August 5 in which sticks, sickles and firecrackers had been used freely leading to injuries to about 50 people on both sides.
The fall-out of this clash was that non-tribals of nearby Dardhagudem marched to the mandal revenue office the next day and torched all the records. The government stepped in and imposed Section 144 in three mandals to contain any further violence.
But the undercurrent of anger is spreading fast among tribals in these areas. Twenty-six years after the land Transfer Regulation Amendment Act One of 1970 (which bans any land transfer in favour of a non-tribal in the scheduled areas), government sources claim that strict implementation of the Act would result in the dispossession of at least 75,000 non-tribals, mostly of the weaker sections.
Tribals who have never been able to own their land are hardly sympathetic when this reason is trotted out to curb their militancy. Why should they understand when the government has never helped them out? The revenue department says the land belongs to tribals but does not give them possession because non-tribals go the court with fabricated documents and get a stay. Ironically for the tribals the produce of the land (which should be theirs) under-writers the money for legal costs incurred by the non-tribals.
"We are dispossessed and we cannot afford to go to the court. That is why we decided to call a halt to everything until the dispute is resolved," says Madakam Venkateshwar Rao, one of the main tribal leaders, who now carries a bow and arrow as do many of the other tribals since trouble began here.
Tens of acres of land have been lying fallow this season because the tribals refused to allow non-tribals to do any farming. This had led to the big farmers among the non-tribals leading to the violence.
"The minute we set foot out of our houses, we are on non-tribal farms," says Thutti Rajamma, a tribal woman. Poleju Bhoodevi whose name ironically means "mother earth" has been making the rounds of the revenue office for the last 30 years to take possession of the 11 acres of land in Veerannapalem village which was declared legally hers by the revenue officials. "My grandfather cleared 70 acres of forest land here. But after his death it has all been taken away by the non-tribals," she says.
Balla Nageshwar Rao in Surapavaigudem was declared the owner of 83 acres of land under the Land Transfer Regulation (LTR) in 1977. But non-tribal farmers approached the high court and got a stay leaving Nageshwar Rao dispossessed. These two have approached Karatam Rambabu, a local big farmer who had voluntarily surrendered 190 acres under the LTR some 20 years ago. But most of the non-tribals do not have the same sense of justice and fair play. Rambabu's solution is the formation of peace committees to settle all disputes through negotiation.
At the same time, he is critical of the tribals for destroying records in the recent violence. Rambabu also criticizes the revenue department for the festering issue. "If they had settled issues quickly, the situation would not have reached this stage," he says.
But with the plethora of legislations, regulations and amendments leave even the most seasoned revenue official baffled. To add to this are the fabricated documents and inter-polations in the revenue records, admits a revenue official. According to panchayatraj minister Kotagiri Vidyadhara Rao there are about 5,500-odd acres of assessed waste dry lands. In the past as many as 6,705 cases were filed concerning 35,320 acres of disputed land of which 4,488 cases were disposed in favour of non-tribals involving 25,663 acres.
Cases involving 2,488 acres were dropped by tribals while 6,626 acres were restored in 744 cases and about 372 acres is in the process of being handed over to the tribals. In the case of 15 villages there is a dispute in the high court challenging the scheduled are status on demographic grounds.
The Act has had a chequered history. The regulation prohibits alienation of any land in the agency area except to a tribal. |
