Should the government pay compensation to the victims of the Indervelli police firing of April 20, 1981?
The Raj Gond tribe of erstwhile united Adilabad district strongly feels the need for succour notwithstanding the long period which has lapsed since the incident which had claimed at least 15 lives.
The Raj Gonds and other aboriginal tribes will observe the 38th anniversary of the infamous firing on April 20 at the martyrs column from where the demand for compensation to victims is likely to be raised. The incident had claimed 60 victims according to independent assessment, who the tribals consider as martyrs.
Police had fired upon unsuspecting Adivasis who had gathered just outside Indervelli village on that fateful Monday to attend a public meeting organised by the Girijan Rythu Coolie Sangham, a frontal organisation of Maoists, then known as CPI (ML) People's War Group, promising to restore their lands encroached upon by non-tribals and Lambadas. Almost all victims belonged to various villages in Indervelli mandal though there are unconfirmed reports of many others from different places also dying in the firing.
“It is never too late,” observed Raj Gond elder Sidam Bheem Rao referring to his demand of giving compensation to victims. “The government should make a list of the poverty-ridden dead and injured and offer them jobs, pensions and monetary compensation for them to live with dignity,” added the elder who is a former chairman of the Aboriginal Tribes Welfare Advisory Committe in the Utnoor Integrated Tribal Development Agency.
Yes, the families of many of the firing victims, like Kanaka Somu's, are mired in poverty. Somu's two sons Ramshau and Janantar, who were just 4-year and 2-year-old in 1981, own just one acre of land.
“Ramshau's son is educated. The government should offer him employment,” suggested late Somu's brother Bhagwanth Rao.
“My old age pension has been discontinued,” complained old Madavi Jangubai of Kannapur in Sirikonda mandal. “Please restore it,” she made a fervent appeal as she showed the scar of the bullet injury she had received in the firing incident.
Jangubai's pension was discontinued as she owned over 10 acres of land following wrongly done transfer of the extent owned by her son after his death.
“That extent has been rightfully transferred in the name of his widow two years back but my pension has not been restored,” she pointed out.