In Ramanakkapeta village of Musunuru Mandal, poor agricultural workers’ families have been cultivating land since 70 years. However, when they approached the revenue department, they were informed that these were forest lands and that the department did not have the powers to confirm titles to the lands. As per the revenue land records of the village, there is an extent of 490.64 acres in Survey number 4/33 and 522.66 acres in Survey number 1/1. The total extent is 1013.30 acres. Under the Forest act of 1967, only 544 acres of land was notified under section 4. That means only 544 acres of land was notified as deemed forest land. The remaining land belongs to the revenue department for which they can issue titles to the poor. Both the departments are playing games with poor. They refuse to conduct a joint survey, as demanded by AIARLA. For more than 70 years, poor families are cultivating these land but neither the revenue nor the forest department have recorded their cultivation and hence the poor are losing their occupational rights because of this injustice. A dharna was conducted in-front of MRO office of Musunru on 7th October and memorandum submitted to the MRO. Before the dharna, a mass rally was taken out in the Mandal headquarter.
