About 200 farmers to get lands they have been cultivating for decades without ‘rights’

Thanks to the intervention of the Chief Justice of Telangana High Court, Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan, about 200 poor aboriginal tribal farmers belonging to villages located on Hatti-Jodeghat road in Kerameri mandal of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district, are likely to get pieces of agriculture lands assigned to them soon. This is perhaps the biggest such exercise in recent decades.

Kerameri Mandal Tahsildar V. Pramod has completed land survey of about 500 acres being cultivated by the tribal farmers for decades without any ‘rights’. He has submitted the report-cum-proposal to Asifabad Revenue Divisional Officer Sidam Dattu for further action.

Media, judiciary-driven

Following publication of a report in these columns on September 23 this year that officials continue to ignore the dozen villages lying on the 22-km. stretch of road between Hatti and the historic Jodeghat in terms of development, the Chief Justice directed the Adilabad District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to visit the villages and ascertain the situation. Accordingly, the then DLSA secretary Uday Bhaskar Rao and a team of Tribal Welfare and Revenue Department officials visited the villages on September 25.

During the team’s visit, villagers made several representations to the team, the largest of those being made for assignment of Revenue lands cultivated by them. Most representations came from Chalbadi, Babejhari and Pedda Patnapur and Chinna Patnapur villages. Adivasis in these villages - mostly from the Kolam tribe which has been categorised as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) - have been cultivating small pieces of land for a long period.

Hoping for an early sanction

As part of the procedure, the District Collector will now have to permit the submitted proposals for further proceedings. Then, put it for final sanction before the KB Asifabad District Assignment Committee headed by the MLA of the concerned Assembly constituency, in this case Athram Sakku of Asifabad Constituency, under which the area falls. “We hope the process is completed soon,” observed an anxious Madavi Muthabai of Chalbadi.

The meticulously prepared proposals consist the names of individual farmers, their mobile phone numbers wherever available, and demarcation of the lands being cultivated by them.

As many as 71 farmers of Chalbadi and 68 of Babejhari villages will get the assigned 189 acres, and over 187 acres of land respectively -- further, an almost equal number of farmers and land in Pedda Patnapur and Chinna Patnapur habitations respectively.