Tribals in East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh registered a crucial victory against land grab. They were supported in the struggle by CPI(ML) as they waged a determined battle against land grabbers. In the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, a cooperative society was registered at Kakinada town (also the district headquarters) to establish a slaughter house at D Paidipala village of Rowthulapudi Mandal, a village inhabited by tribal people. Though records showed it to be registered as a cooperative, it was an open secret in the district that a central minister was behind this venture.
Some time back, the people of D Paidipala village were shocked when they heard that some official had visited the village and that they were going to give clearance for a slaughter house. The land proposed for slaughter house is very near the village, which through inhabited by tribals, has not been notified as a schedule tribal village under the Constitution (Schedule 5).
The Jaldam Panchayat under which this village comes, conducted an emergency meeting and passed a resolution opposing the slaughter house so close to the village. The District Collector sent a notice to the Gram panchayat questioning the resolution. The villagers found that the co-operative had already been granted all the necessary permissions like land conversion (from agriculture to non-agriculture use), industrial permission, and environmental clearance to establish the slaughter house – without consulting the village panchayat.
Using the Right to Information act, CPI (ML) sought documents including basic revenue records of the particular land for which the permission had been granted for industry – land conversion files from the Revenue Divisional office at Peddapuram, environmental clearance and other related documents from the AP Pollution Control Board, and the land registration certificates from the sub-registrar’s office. Within one month, the party was able to get all the necessary documents pertaining to the slaughter house. Careful study of these documents revealed several truths about how the local officers flouted established procedures and laws to give clearances to the slaughter house company.
The land records of the village showed that this land was government land and not private land. It was also revealed that the land had long ago been assigned by the government to the local tribal poor as D-form-pattas (homestead land). As per the state’s Act 9/77, lands thus assigned should not be transferred to third parties. At the same time the owners of the company continued to claim that they had purchased these lands which only signified a violation of act 9/77.
The local revenue officer tampered with the village records when they sent true copies to the RDO, Peddapuram for land conversion from agriculture to non-agriculture use and also in case of permissions from other departments. Fraudulently, the status of government land assigned to tribal poor for houses was changed into private land to get permission for industry. Comrade Bugatha Bangaru Raju, Central Committee Member of the party met the Tehsildar and submitted a petition for action against the land grab. He also met RDO, Peddapuram and submitted a petition for action against the officers who tampered with the records and requested to cancel the land conversion certificate issued to the company.
The party mobilized the people of the Jaldam Panchayat and several mass protests and rallies were held. The tribals participated in these rallies in huge numbers and with tremendous determination. On 13 April, a fact finding team visited the site and spoke with adivasis of Jaldam and D Paidipala. As a result of the pressure built by the struggle, the local Tehsildar was forced to agree in writing and confirm that the land records had been tampered with by their staff and the land in question was government land and not private land. He sent a report to the RDO for action and copies of the same were given to the party leaders. This was a significant victory for the villagers.
