Addasaram tenant farmers have no land to till

After tilling a land for over 65 years, 70-year-old Mallareddi Babu Rao of Addasaram village in the district, has suddenly become a landless poor.

He was nowhere to go with his family of three daughters who, are dependent on him and all that is left for him is tears.

“I have no option other than committing suicide, if the district administration does not restore our land,” he lamented on Monday when this scribe visited the village along with a fact-finding team from Human Rights Forum, led by its State convenor V.S. Krishna.

The 40 Dalit families of Addasaram have been fighting a bitter battle with the landsharks, who are allegedly being supported by the revenue officials.

The 40 families from Addasaram and about 15 from the adjacent Konthalamhave been tilling a land ad measuring about 33 acres in survey number 79-1, 79-11, 79-12B, 79-15, 82-14B, 83 and 84, for the last six to seven decades.

The land belonged to one Duvvuri Venkata Chalamayya and the last legal heir was his granddaughter Duvvuri Surya Prakasam.

“We were paying lease rent varying from ₹ 10 in those days to ₹ 700, but after 1995, we have lost total touch of Ms. Surya Prakasam. There is no known whereabouts of her and as per the last report she had become mentally-challenged.

She was not married and did not have any children,” said Mr. Babu Rao.

“Taking this as an advantage, a few persons tried to usurp the land by driving us out, but we lodged a case in Narsipatnam Court in 1998, and the then VRO certified us as the tenant farmers and enjoyers of the land. It was recorded and it was there in the record including in the weblands till last year December,” said Sunkari Pydi Naidu (72), another aged farmer.

Though since 1998, the tenant farmers have been living under constant fear, as there was no contact with the original land owners and land sharks were eyeing the land, it turned out to be a nightmare, when their names were removed from the webland records in January this year, said Buddha Chakradhar of Samalochana, an RTI activist, who was part of the team.

All the names of the tenant farmers have been systematically deleted from the ‘enjoyer’ column in a phased manner and the name of one Rayavarapu Chandrasekhar Rao has been included in both the ‘owner’ and ‘enjoyer’ column and this has been done in collusion with the MRO, VRO and the computer operators, he alleged.

Survey

All these developments have been highlighted to Joint Collector G. Srijana in March, who after a patient hearing promised to get a survey done.

“Though the survey is yet to be conducted, the VRO along with Chandrasekhar Rao in the meantime have approached us with the threat of getting the police force to throw us out,” said Dalamma, a tenant farmer.

The farmers had also lodged a complaint about the change of records at the Chief Minister’s Office, and the based on the complaint the Collector was directed to conduct an inquiry. But despite the order, the revenue officials have changed the records, alleged Mr. Krishna of HRF. “We demand that the Collector conducts an inquiry himself and put the records changed by tehsildar on hold till the completion of the inquiry,” he said.

No legal heirs

As there are no legal heirs to Duvvuri Surya Prakasam, as per the AP Escheats and Bona Vacantia Act of 1974, the villagers demanded that the government should take over the land and distribute to the landless tenant farmers.