​Praja Sankalpa Yatra Diary, Day 105: TDP Leaders On A Land-grabbing Spree Everywhere

Inkollu Camp Office, Prakasam district: Wherever I went during the course of my Padayatra, in every village and every town of each district , complaints poured out in thousands on the supply of drinking water, loan waivers and a range of other welfare schemes which were not implemented by the TDP government. Today however there were a spate of complaints on land-grabbing being indulged in by the TDP leaders. Victims of the TDP leaders' unbridled thirst for land came to me in hordes and narrated their problems to me.

In Devarapalli village, about 48 Dalit families had been cultivating crops on 22 acres for 40 years now. It was during Indira Gandhi’s period four decades ago that they were given B forms and owned the land which was their principal means of livelihood. Though they were the rightful owners of the land, in the past when Chandrababu Naidu ruled over the state for five years, his partymen tried to prevent these villagers from cultivating crops on their land. When my father, the late Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy came to power in 2004, he ensured that these poor Dalit families could revive their agricultural activity on land which was rightfully theirs. However, to their misfortune, Chandrababu Naidu came to power in 2014 and their troubles began once again. The government adopted a vindictive attitude towards these people whom it saw through a jaundiced lens as those who did not vote for the ruling party.

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In August last year, one dark night about 400 policemen descended on the village, arrested men and women indiscriminately and then, the land grabbers using excavating equipment dug up the agricultural lands owned by these poor Dalit families. The victims were forced to go to court on this matter. I was deeply pained on listening to their saga of suffering. How cruel and vindictive can the government be towards its own people, and the poorest of the poor at that! To harm their means of livelihood and drive them deeper into penury, is shocking, to say the least.

Dalit villagers of Chinnganjam had a similar story to narrate. Representatives of the scheduled castes welfare association from the village came and met me. They expressed their anguish saying for the past 15 years about 60 impoverished Dalit families, were conducting their agricultural activity on about 56 acres. After the TDP government came to power, their problems began. The ruling party leaders began fudging official records and created ownership documents in the name of proxies. The officials concerned are hand in glove with them, they said. They felt helpless at seeing TDP leaders trying to indulge in illegal sand mining business. The ruling party leaders were also creating bogus online records using names of ineligible people, they said. Left with no other alternative, these villagers were compelled to go to court. If the government which is supposed to be a guardian of the rights and interests of the people, itself resorts to such illegal methods, what is one to say! This is a classic case of the fence eating the crop.

In Inkollu Patnam, members from Muslim community met me. They spoke at length about the injustice being meted to them. They said that they were given 2 1/2 cents of land comprising 518 plots by the government 30 years ago. Most of the beneficiaries were from the Muslim community. They could not build their houses because land remained uneven, roads were not laid and basic facilities including work related to water and power supply not taken up.

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After the TDP came to power, the local MLA along with others, accused them of being YSRCP supporters and told them that their pattas or ownership deeds, would be cancelled. They are now trying to get these plots assigned to TDP followers and cronies, members of the poor Muslim community there, told me. They said that the ruling party that had adopted a vengeful attitude towards them.

Instead of providing basic facilities to the poor who had been allotted plots by the government, the government is acting in a blatantly discriminatory manner. Worse, with malevolent intent, it is trying to snatch this land from these poor groups and assign it to its followers.There seems to be no limit to the land-grabbing efforts of the ruling party members. Added to that, they enjoy the full support of party bigwigs.

I read in the newspapers that the Oscar Awards were announced the other day. If the jury had followed Chandrababu's cleverly crafted acting on the issue of special category status, he would probably have been handed an Oscar for his performance.

I have a question for the chief minister--governments assign lands for agricultural activity or plots for houses to the needy; Instead of taking up such activity, is it fair to snatch the land thus given to them by intimidating and threatening them? Is it proper for the government to turn into a wolf in sheep's clothing? Who do the victims of such brazen injustice turn to?