Nellore: Villagers up in arms against forcible acquisition of lands

Nellore: The villagers in many mandals are opposing to handover their lands being used for community purposes when the officials told them to vacate.

They are criticising that the officials are not taking legal measures to evacuate affluent people who have encroached valuable lands and only taking over lands being enjoyed by the poor.

In fact, the vacant lands in many mandals are being utilised by the local population for their cultivation, grazing and other needs as part of their livelihood activity. Now, the revenue officials who are in the land acquisition spree for distribution of house-sites to the poor before Telugu New Year are evacuating them using police force.

On Tuesday, villagers of Kourugunta in Dagadarthi mandal staged a protest resisting the efforts of the tahsildar asking them to vacate their lands encroached by the affluent people in Sunnambatti area close to the national highway. They asked the reason for evacuating lands being cultivated by the local population. They criticised the revenue officials for indulging in huge corruption in the mandal and sought action against them who involved in the land-related scams.

Officials also demolished thatched houses in Chintagunta ST Colony in Venkatagiri mandal and the hapless tribal population who have arranged temporary houses in the lands. They asked as to why the government was making them shelterless for distributing lands to middle-class population and others. Officials are not considering even suicide attempts of people saying them as melodrama, said a local leader.

"Officials are taking back old house-sites, lands for grazing, the place for storing the fodder and even unused agriculture lands for house-sites. They are now showing the old sites as new layouts for distribution. People who requested for house-sites are bearing brunt of sacrificing their lands being used for many decades too," said P Venkateswarlu from Vasili in Atmakur mandal.

In Kodavaluru, where house-sites allocated to the local STs 30 years ago are being developed as house-sites and the Jana Sena leader Ch Manukranth Reddy visited the place and demanded to stop the acquisition process.

"These lands are owned by local poor and the officials proposed to hand over to farmers who are having lands in the area and demolished the houses. How far this is correct? How these officials identified them as eligible beneficiary," asked Manukranth Reddy.