Tribals sore over district administration's attitude

December 2, 1996.

Newsflash

Eluru, Dec. 1: The tribals are becoming increasingly critical of the district administration's style of functioning and performance. The main cause of concern is the land ownership and delay in implementation of LRT Act 1/70-the pro-non-tribal attitude as felt by the self disignated as sons and daughters of the soil-tribals.

The trouble in the tribal notified mandals of Buttayigedem, Jeelugumilli and Polavaram of West Godavari commences with the begining of transplantation and harvesting time of rabi crops.

This system was in vogue for a decade in this area. The seasonal internal dispute between tribals and non-tribals is taking shape into year-long fight due to official apathy, it is learnt.

Now some outside elements are coming forward in the garb of helping and rescuing innocent tribals with an ambition to climb political ladder. Further it is has become routine to enter into other's lands on benami names and take away the crop ready for harvesting.

During last kharif season the seats of mandal revenue officers at Jeelugumilli and Jangareddigudem were the target of attack by the angry non-tribals. The tribals blame that so far no action was taken against the persons who destroyed the valuable government records, whereas the 43 tribals were arrested and sent to Rajahmundry Central Jail; on the charge of involvement in Busarajupalli incident, when several non-tribals were injured and standing crops were taken away.

The Parliamentary elections and cyclone devastation make the administration to keep aside the agency problem till date.

The tribals who could not get favourable judgement in revenue divisional offices at Kovvur and not finalized at Collector's end as agent to Governor, the vexed tribals are now ready for it. Some hailing from Reddy Ganapavaram, Basurajapalli and other villages of Jelugumilli mandal are now excepting for nearly 200 acres of land ready for harvest.

Added to this, the CPM which had little impact in tribal area and the local tribal MLA, is said to be with an understanding with non-tribals who comprise more than 65 per cent of votes bank, had by supporting them in their demands and objecting to amendments to tribals acts introduced two decades ago for their benefit.

They have made Bhadrachalam tribal MLA, Mr. Kunja Bojji to take active part in their efforts to win tribal confidence.

Now it is not too late on the part of the district administrators and politicians to get alert and make the tribals to rely on their words.

But the differences in ruling Telugu Desam Party cadre in the district labelled as Panchayat Raj Minister, Mr. K. Vidyadhara Rao group and other (Mr. P.V. Krishna Rao, Kovvur, MLA) and Zilla Parishad Chairperson, Ms. Immeni Rajeswari factions.

The tribal MLA, Mr. Singanna Dora is in the fold of second group and not turned up to the meeting held by Mr. Vidyadhara Rao, our tribals' matters in September this year. The minister who assured to visit the tribal area and meet them had not fulfilled the promise.

Taking advantage of the back drop of the minister, the other faction is making frequent visits to tribal areas whenever opportunity arises.

The tribals are now heading to take possession of 2,000 acres of surplus lands and assessed waste land in Polavaram as informed by Mr. Kunja Bojji.

But it seems the mean at the helm of the affairs are seem to be thinking the other way.

Crop snatching in rural West Godavari

The Indian Express

Monday December 16, 1996.

Jangareddigudem, Dec. 15: Despite the assurance of the officials to the non-Girijans and their efforts to instill some confidence in them, Girijans in the agency area have been appropriating the paddy crop belonging to the non-Girijans.

They are winnowing the crop and loading it in the sacks under the very nose of the officials and carrying it away. On Saturday too, a similar incident occurred at Muppinawarigudem near Buttaigudem. Though the Kovvuru RDO Sarada Devi had camped at the mandal office they have boldly been carrying out their exploits.

The snags in the functioning of the revenue officials too surfaced in this incident of crop-snatching. To solve the problem and to console the victims for the time being, the collector had distributed pattas for poramboke lands near Buttaigudem among 52 persons in July last.

But these lands are being cultivatred by the Dalits for the past 50 years. The pattas were given under the impression that it would calm down the Girijans for some time but the norms were violated and pattas were given for lands in the tank area and at the bunds. The Girijans have snatched the crop in these lands.

At Reddiganapavaram on Friday, the Girijans spoke faulting the revenue officials in the presence of RDO Saradadevi, DSPs Manohar Rao from Narasapuram and J Brahma Reddy from Jangareddigudem besides the other officials in the matter of pilfering the crop.

The Girijans have made it clear that they would not leave lands on which there was the court's stay and those which were encroached.

The Hindu, December 18, 1996.

Eluru, Dec.17: The land problem in tribal areas of West Godavari district is snowballing into a major law and order issue. Tribals armed with bows and arrows are organising raids on the fields of non-tribals and caring away the grain.

In the last 20 days, paddy from 50 acres was reported to have been taken away by Buttayagudem and the latest was Ramannapalem in Polavaram mandal. The presence of the Kovvur revenue divisional officer, Mrs. Sarada, and Jangareddygudem Deputy Superiendent of Police, Mr. J. Brahma Reddy did not defer the tribals on Monday. As discussions were on between the leaders and officials, the tribals went about cutting and threshing.

The police department fears that any delay in attending to the problem might trigger clashes between tribals and non-tribals. Sixty villages in Buttayagudem, Jeelugumilli and Polavaram mandals were identified as hyper-sensitive. The police are in a helpless state in the absence of clear diagnosis of the problem. The Deputy Superiendent of Police, Mr. Brahma Reddy, says unless assisted by revenue staff and landowners, the police cannot protect the fields and were unable to act as ownership was claimed both by tribal and non-tribal farmers.

It was physically impossible to post security personnel to each and every field. Moreover, non-tribal farmers were seeking the help of revenue and police even harvest crops, he said.

The tribals, who are in an aggressive mood, say that they can never get lands if they sit with their hands folded. They argue that non-tribals are creating obstacles even for transfer of lands in clear cases by taking the matter to higher courts.

The non-tribal farmers are angry over revenue and police officials accusing them of indifference. A few days ago a group of non-tribal farmers barged into the office of the District Collector, Mr. D. Ramakrishna and picked up an argument with him. They demanded action against the tribals who tresspassed into their fields.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist which is backing the tribals, began organising them. The party MLA from Bhadrachalam, Mr. Kunja Bojji, toured the agency areas of the district recently and spoke in support of them.

Mr. Eswaraiah, the CPM divisional secretary at Jangareddygudem, stated that the stand of tribals was justified as they were for the asking for the lands assigned to them by lower-level tribal courts. The Joint Collector, Mr. Subrahmanyam, sees a socio-economic angle to the problem and feels that the issue could be tackled effectively by expediting the development process through the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA).