Show of solidarity by tribals

The Hindu, Saturday, December 21, 1996.

From Our Staff Reporter

Reddyganapavaram (West Godavari), Dec. 20: The hostage drama at Reddyganapavaram, a remote tribal village in West Godavari district, ended on a happy note, mainly because of both sides exercising restraint. The police and the tribals, who were armed to the teeth, dispersed by Thursday evening, without firing a single shot.

But the reputation of police and revenue departments was badly bruised the the episode. First, the officers bargained for the release of policemen held captive and tendered an apology, Secondly, the force retreated leaving behind a weapon snatched by tribals during the scuffle.

It is believed that the top police officers at district headquarters had no knowledge of the pre-dawn raid on the village. Mrs. Kuram Gowramma, a tribal women who was the target of police, said the Jangareddygudem Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr. J. Brahma Reddy, who was moved by her condition (torn clothes and ruffled hair) feigned ignorance and apologized to her.

It is learnt that the officers in Eluru were not given a true picture of the alarming situation and the help of the Joint Collector, Mr. M. Subramanyam, and Additional Superintendent of Police, Mr. Laxma Reddy, was sought to negotiate with the tribals. The District Collector and the SP remained at Eluru.

Villagers' version

According to villagers, an armed police party went to the house of Gowramma around 2 a.m. and woke up the family by knocking at the door. The policemen forced their way into the house and started beating up the woman and other members of the family with sticks. Gowramma said her four-year-old grandson fell to the ground when policemen overturned the cot. In the meantime, Gowramma's teenage daughter escaped and ran on the streets raising an alarm. In no time the entire tribal population of the village was on the streets scuffling with the police. The women, who resisted the men being whisked away by police, were beaten up and their mouths gagged to prevent them from raising an alarm. Ten tribals suffered simple bleeding injuries. Eight of them were women.

The tribals went berserk and attacked policemen when they laid hands on tribal chieftain Baburao, known as 'Pedakapu' in tribal parlance. The tribals stood against the police vehicle and blocked the way.

As the message of attack flashed across the tribal belt, men, women and children armed with bows, arrows, clubs, machetes and chilli powder marched to Reddyganapavaram by sunrise. The number swelled to over a thousand by 10.30 a.m.

The policemen were held hostage till 3 p.m. until the senior officials from Eluru arrived. The policemen went without food and the canteen in the village was forced to close by tribals.

The tribals demonstrated a rare solidarity. People from Pakalagudem, Regulakunta, Palakunta, Taditota, Veerannapalem, Busarajupalli, Marrigudem, Jegichettgudem, Uppalapadu and Toorpuregulakunta laid siege to the village. Some of the tribals brought their lunch along with their weapons. For others, three bags of rice was cooked and Rs. 1,800 was spent on provisions.

Kaki Balaraju of Bugarajupalli said the police came to his house first which was five km from Reddyganapavaram. But he refused to open the door and asked them to come next morning.

The tribal area consisting of Buttayagudem, Polavaram and Jeelugumilli is slowly slipping out of the control of the administration. The Government machinery is in a helpless state as tribals are harvesting crop from the fields cultivated by non-tribals. Over 50 acres was reaped by tribals in Reddyganapavaram, Busarajupalli and Ramannapalem.

The land problem in the tribal area is 100 years old. An analysis of various laws reveals that the interests of tribals were not taken care of completely. The Agency Tracts Interest and Land Transfer Act, 1917, rendered null and void any deal transferring land from a tribal to a non-tribal. However, an exemption existed. The transfer could be effected by the 'written consent of the agent (District Collector)'.

The passage of the 1917 Act makes it clear that penetration of non-tribals into the agency tracts assumed serious dimension in the first quarter of the century. After Independence , the State Government brought in a comprehensive law, the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulation Act, 1959.

The Act prohibited land transfer from a tribal to a non-tribal altogether and the provision 'consent of the agent' was dropped. To provide more teeth to the Act, the regulation 1 of 1970 popularly known as '1 0f 70' was brought in. It prohibited exchange of land even among non-tribals.

The post of special deputy collector (tribal welfare) was created to review land deals suo motu and eject non-tribals if found holding land in violation of the law. The liability was with the non-tribal land owner to prove that his possession was in accordance with the law.

The office of SDC(TW), located at Kotaramachandrapuram, reviewed 6,700 cases involving 35,000 acres since its inception. About 4,400 cases (2500 acres) were disposed of in favour of non-tribals and 1300 cases (6,500 acres) in favour of tribals. About 700 cases (2,500 acres) were dropped and 120 (1800 acres) cases were pending.

Weapon restored to police

The weapon snatched from a constable during the scuffle at Reddyganapavaram on Thursday was restored to police on Friday.

Girijans Loot Paddy From Fields

November 25, 1996.

Indian Express

Jangareddigudem, Nov 25: DSP J. Brahma Reddy on sunday evening recovered the 50 bags of rice the Girijans had looted from the fields of non-Girijans on saturday evening at Reddiganapavaram in Buttaigudem mandal.

The recovery of the rice was done amidst a tense atmosphere prevailing in the town from morning to evening on sunday. Even at Busarajupalem Girijans tried to harvest the crop in a field and these 60 bags of rice were recovered by the DSP.

More than a hundred Girijan women and men cut paddy in two acres from the four acres and four cents belonging to the NLS area Rytu Sangham president Gadde Lakshman Rao and carried it away in bags.

The Girijans took the rice away to their gudem without bothering about the assurance held out by Buttaigudem MRO K.V. Ramana Rao and RDO Sarada Devi that the crop would be kept in the panchayat office if the Girijans had any doubts. The officials dissuaded the Girijans in vain from the lands for whicch pattas have been issued.

Even when the police came on a complaint from Lakshman Rao, the Girijans did not relent. But on sunday DSP Brahma Reddy was successful in convincing the girijans and having them get the crop they had taken from the fields. The police have become alert with the incident in Reddiganapavaram creating a sensation in Polavaram constituency and the Girijans in the villages there too taking an example from the Reddiganapavaram Girijans.

The MLA and steering committee member Poonem Singanna Dora spoke to the Girijans on November 2 earlier warning them not to touch the patta lands. The next day joint collector M. Subrahmanyam called the Girijan leaders to the ITDA office at Kotaramachandrapuram and told them that land in Buttaigudem would be distributed as poramboke soon. He too advised the Girijans not to go the patta lands.

But the Girijans seem to be in no mood to pay heed to the officials despite the fact that the MLA has given the officials concerned documents of the land deeds. Nobody has been arrested in this case, the DSP said.

Storm Drewing in tribal hinterland

December 8, 1996.

By G Ranganath

Buttayagudem (West Godavari dist), Dec-7: The struggle for the government land and the assessed waste dryland (AWD) by the tribals in the agency areas of Jeelugumilli, Buttayagudem and Ploavaram mandals after a brief hill following the 'Reddyganapavaram (Buttayagudem mandal) incident' on December 19 has once again picked up momentum with reports of theft of paddy and tobacco crops raised by non-tribals on the disputed lands.

The situation in several villages and tribal hamlets, including Reddyganapavaram and Boosarajupalli, in the mandal is grim and any time it may explode into a serious law and order problem. It appears that neither the police nor the revenue department is sincerely trying to more peace in the already charged areas.

Harvesting of standing crop has been hampered in hundreds of acres of the disputed land in the mandal as the tribals were not allowing the non-tribals to go ahead with the reaping. Paddy crop worth several lakhs of rupees was left for the cattle to graze on.

It may be recalled that on a complaint from a non-tribal farmer that paddy crop in his five acre land was illegally reaped by the tribals at Reddyganapavaram, the police booked a case against 12 persons and raided the tribal hamlet on December 19.

Narrating the incident to The Indian Express, Koram Gouramma, a tribal woman, said, 'The police raided our hamlet at around 3 am. They knocked at my door and asked for our leader Madakam Venkateswara Rao. When I opened the door and said that I did not know the where about's of our leader, they gagged and then dragged by the hair on to the road beating with sticks and using filthy language. Only when my sister raised an alarm did the neighbours come to our rescue. Nevertheless, the police had beat up me as well as women in the neighbourhood. If they should they come at that odd hour and beat us? They should have come in the day and inquired into the matter."

A youth, K. Venkateswara Rao said, "About 70 policemen bashed up 18 men and women, after which the entire hamlet rushed to the scene with their traditional weapons of bows and arrows. The police gave up the charge on noticing the increasing number of our men joining the counter-offensive."

"In violation of the provisions of the law, non-tribals who do not belong to our village, were given pattas for the government and AWD lands. We will not stop the fight till the revenue officials give the land to us."

Refuting the allegation that the tribal women of Reddyganapavaram, Jangareddygudem were beaten the police, DSP J. Brahma Reddy said, "We have been politely dealing with the tribals as they are an innocent and ignorant lot. They behave well with us whenever we visit their village. There is no need for us to bash them up. We have been asking them to give up illegal harvest of crops. Even yesterday, we received a complaint that the tribals had reaped paddy crop in about five acres at Reddyganapavaram."

Another senior officer, on the condition of anonymity, said, "That day, when we went to Reddyganapavaram to arrest them, the tribals attacked us in a planned manner. Hundreds of tribals assembled and we were outnumbered within no time. About 10 of us were Injured in the attack. They also seized a .303 gun from one of our men and took all of us hostages. The night before that incident, Vyavasaya Karmika Sangham (CPI(M) affiliate body) district president M. Eswaraiah and secretary Manthena Seetharam, who were somehow informed of our visit, clandestinely met the tribals in the hamlet and planned the attack. We were flabbergasted when the tribals who had been polite to us till the other day, turned violent and attacked us. We are sure that only the two leaders were responsible for itr. Such leaders are taking advantage of the tribals' innocence and exploiting them for their selfish ends."

A 70-year-old tribal farmer Paida Jogaiah of Boosarajupalli (Buttayagudem mandal) said, "When I was ten, my father along with six others of our family brought 18 acres of forest land into cultivation by cutting down the trees and leveling it as the then karanam B. Venkataramaiah had promised to distribute the land among us. We were allowed to cultivate the land for only a year after which the karanam sold it away to a non-tribal, B. Suraiah, since then we have been eking out a living as mere agricultural workers."

The survey that has recently been initiated to find out as to who is enjoying ownership on patta lands and government wastelands is going at a snail's pace. It even ended halfway in some areas as the revenue authorities did not want to incur the wrath of the tribals. The reason was the difference of opinion that cropped up between the revenue officials and the tribals and the tribals when the latter came to know that the survey was being conducted as per the Revenue Survey Records (RSR) of 1933 as against their demand for its conduct as per Section 1 of the Land Transfer Regulation Act of 1970 (usually referred to as 'act one of seventy') as well as in accordance with the RSR of 1903.

Disregarding the advice of the top brass of the department and the police, the tribals are reaping the crops raised by the non-tribals. Prospects for an amicable settlement between the tribals and non-tribals in the near future appear dim as the revenue department itself is confused as to which records it should follow in regard to conduct of the survey and distribution of pattas to tribals.

The situation is gradually becoming tense with the increasing intervention of leftist and radical parties which is a pointer to the gravity of the dispute. Currently, the atmosphere