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Hans India
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Farmers, forest officials fight over land issue
Khanapur: Tension prevailed for a while when forest officials appeared from nowhere and laid claimed on the lands being tilled by tribals and Dalits in Pembi mandal on Tuesday. The locals confronted them and forced them to leave. According to locals, 40 years ago, then Chief Minister Late Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao himself came to Itikala and gave 70 to 80 acres of land to tribals and non-tribals. Since then, Dalits and tribals have been tilling those lands and living on them. If we go into the details, the tribals of Itikala in Pembi mandal of Nirmal district are living on paddy farming and growing cotton. Suddenly, for the last three or four days, the forest department have been deploying a large number of personnel to take over those lands and dug holes to plant trees in those lands. When the Podu farmers came to know about this, they went to their lands in large numbers. When the Forest officials tried to plant trees, the Dalits and tribals confronted them. They questioned how they could block the lands given to them 40 years ago. This led to a confrontation between the Forest officials, tribals and Dalits. Tension prevails A woman farmer tried to kill herself to take her land. After a fight between the officials and the farmers for a while, the Forest officials said that the land was theirs. But farmers said that the land belongs to them as they have been cultivating for 40 years and that they will not leave the lands even if they are killed. The farmers had a big fight with the forest officials and asked them to temporarily stop taking possession of the lands and they turned back and left.
The Hindu
08-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Stage being set for launch of Indira Solar Giri Water Development scheme
The State government is setting the stage for the launch of Indira Solar Giri Water Development scheme. The scheme, another major initiative of the Congress government, envisages to bring lands allotted to tribal communities under the RoFR Act [The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights Act, 2006)] into cultivation and empower the tribal communities economically. The scheme aims at benefitting tribal farmers who had been waiting for free power supply to cultivate their Podu cultivation, where forest land is cleared by cutting and burning vegetation to create fields. The process has, however, been hit by obstacles as administrative delays relating to clearances from the departments concerned, Forest department in particular. It was in this background, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka convened a meeting of senior officials to resolve the impasse in giving permissions to ensure uninterrupted power supply to these farms. Mr. Bhatti Vikramarka has asserted that the Congress government had allocated substantial funds for the scheme, which no other State in the country had made. The Indira Solar Giri Water Development Scheme is expected to cater to irrigation needs of six lakh acres benefitting over 2.1 lakh tribal farmers over the next five years. The scheme will be launched by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy at Mannanur in Achampet Assembly constituency on May 18 and it has been proposed that the entire Cabinet would be present at the event. The Deputy Chief Minister said the officials from the ITDA, electricity and horticulture departments would play a key role in the implementation of the project and wanted them to plan for effective rollout of the project. Selected tribal villages that received land titles would be surveyed for water availability and this would be followed by borewell drilling, installation of solar pumpsets, plantations, and drip irrigation systems to ensure farmers do not face difficulties. Mr. Bhatti Vikramarka suggested that cultivation of crops like avocado, bamboo, pomegranate, dragon fruit, and fig which would be remunerative. Officials concerned should accordingly conduct awareness programmes for tribal farmers in this direction. Officials concerned should visit other States where such experiments were met with success. The Deputy Chief Minister directed the officials concerned to identify crops that could generate yields and income in short term as plantations like palm oil and bamboo would take at least three years to generate income to farmers. He wanted the officials to explore options like Himachal Pradesh where organic vegetables were exported to the national capital for emulation in the ITDA areas.
