Tribal fights break out over podu land ownership

Kollapur: With the State government deciding to provide pattas to the podu land (forest land) to the tribals living in the forest areas, two groups have entered into an altercation relating to the ownership of podu land in Narlapur village of Kollapur mandal and came to blows and injuring 10-15 members on Friday.

Going into the details, it is learnt that the villagers of Kudikilla had cut the trees and owned the forest lands 40-50 years ago in Narlapur village, however, as the lands were not convenient and far away, they had left it and handed it over to the villagers of Narlapur and ever since then the villagers of Narlapur have been tilling the land and making a living.

As the State government had recently announced that it is planning to give pattas to the Podu land whoever is tilling and cultivating the podu land, the Narlapur villagers along with the forest officials and government survey officials visited the said land on the outskirts of the village, however, learning about the visit of survey officials, hundreds of villagers from Kudikilla came on to the spot and claimed that they are the real owners of the podu lands. But the Narlapur sarpanch and the villagers denied it vehemently and they claimed that they are the real owners as they have been cultivating the lands for the past 50-60 years.

Aggrieved over this, the villagers of Kudikilla who brought sticks and roads attacked the villagers of Narlapur. A mob including woman, and others beat Venkataiah husband of Narlapur Sarpanch Bhagyamma, indiscriminately and injured him critically. Learning about this incident the Kollapur police reached the spot and registered cases against the people who were involved into manhandling.

As many as 10 persons from Narlapur and 2-3 persons from Kudikilla received injuries and were shifted to Kollapur hospital for treatment. It is learnt that Venkataiah, husband of Narlapur husband has been shifted to Hyderabad for treatment, as he has been severely beaten and it is said that his condition is critical.

According to locals and eye witnesses, the main culprits in this issue are the forest and revenue officials. The corrupt forest officials had taken bribes from both the sides and assured to provide them rights over the podu lands. However, during grama sabha when the village sarpanch and villagers of Narlapur opposed the claim of Kudikilla villagers, they got enraged and resorted to physical attacks.

Some people are also of the view that as the Kudikilla villagers had lost their lands under the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation project; they wanted to at least regain some land by reclaiming their past rights on the podu land they had owned long back. However, with the officials not able to come out clearly on who are the real owners of the podu lands, the people of both the villages are claiming their ownership and entering into altercation and now allowing the government survey officials to carry out the land survey in the region.