Vidasam demands recovery of ‘freehold land’ from land grabbers and its return to Dalits

The 6 lakh acres of land in Visakhapatnam district, which was declared freehold in violation of G.O. No. 596, should be acquired and returned to the STs, and the reports of the two Special Investigation Teams (SITs), formed during the TDP and YSRCP governments, should be made public, demanded Vistrutha Dalita Sanghala Aikya Vedika (Vidasam) State convener Busi Venkata Rao.

A protest was organised by Dalit organisations at the Gandhi statue, near GVMC, on Monday (July 07). Addressing the gathering, Mr. Venkata Rao alleged that some political leaders had grabbed around 6 lakh acres of assigned lands in the district, by taking undue advantage of G.O. issued by the previous government on assigned lands. This was confirmed by the Cabinet Sub Committee. He warned that the kingpins behind the assigned land scam were trying to join the present coalition government and trying to influence the government to legalise the lands grabbed by them.

He alleged that the land grabbers had got their names included after removing the names of the original landholders and converting the land into ‘freehold’. He alleged that some influential persons in the present government were advising that only registration fee should be collected from the ‘land grabbers’. He demanded that the government should acquire the freehold lands and reallocate them to the Dalits. He also sought amendment of the G.O. to ensure that purchase and sale of these lands should be allowed only between those belonging to one community.

Dalit leader Omkar, who presided over the meeting, criticised the coalition government for failing to initiate any action on the police officials, who had beaten three youths with lathis on the road, in full public view.

Another leader T. Srirama Murthy alleged that not even a case was filed by the police when a Dalit area was ostracised by the villagers in Mallam village in Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan’s constituency. Dalit leaders K. Chinna Rao, Thantadi Kiran Kumar, Kothapalli Venkata Ramana, Bagam Gopala, Maturu Srinivasa Rao, Sodadasi Sudhakar and D. Nirmala were among those who participated.