Dalit women foil attempt to grab government land

Visakhapatnam: Gathering courage following formation of SIT, around 100 Dalit women prevented grabbing of 10 acres of government land under survey numbers 205 and 206 in Tallavalasa under Bheemili mandal, near here on Wednesday. The cost of the land is expected to be around Rs 50 crore in the open market.

According to the women, some people belonging to Bhimavaram under West Godavari landed here and drew a plan to occupy the land. They began building a barbed wire fencing around the land on Tuesday with an intention to grab the land. Villagers, who were aware that the land belonged to the government, raised a protest but it was ignored.

But when they came close to completing the fencing, over hundred villagers mostly women surrounded the grabbers and entered into a heated argument. Later, they demolished a large part of the fencing.

The women lodged a complaint with the Bheemili police station and submitted a petition to the tahsildar of Bheemili mandal. The tahsildar deputed a surveyor to inspect the land.

“We are living nearby since decades and we know the land belongs to government. If the government wants to discard the land, then they should give us a housing project as normally given to Dalit community,’’ said V Lakshmi, who was most outspoken among them.