We had published some reports of struggle for land occupation in the last issue. Since then more reports have come from the different districts which show that the struggle for land occupation is continuing in the state.

Khammam : Landlord Raghuvendra Rao was the owner of 3052 acres of land between Mamidifendalal and Suvarnapuram villages of Yellandu mandal. Landless tribals had earlier occupied 100 acres of land; 150 people got possession certificates for 2275 acres in 1990. However they were never handed over the land, it was never demarcated for them and now it is a thick forest. The landlord’s heir, Sureshbabu, holds 777 acres. People belonging to Kothagudem, Dhansyalapadu, Medikunta, Sqarapuram, Mannidigudala held a general meeting on 20th December 2004 and formed a land struggle committee. On 21s December, 500 tribals from the villages occupied the land under the leadership of Com. D. Prasad and Com. Aruna.

Adilabad : 200 acres of land was occupied in Sattanpalli village of Khanapur mandal, an area surrounding the forest. Actually this land was issued for cultivation but the forest dept. incorporated it into forest land. However traces can be found even today that it was a village earlier and the villagers had vacated it due to some disease like cholera. 200 villagers, ready to brave repression, have occupied the Jillelagunta lands. The weeding process was on between Dec. 16th to Dec. 22nd 2004. People resisted the threats issued by the forest dept.

Nalgonda: On 10th January 2005, 70 people laid huts in the house site land purchased by the govt. in Mandanapalli village of Alair mandal. The villagers had approached revenue officials for this purpose but the officials backed the fraud sarpanch who had collected thousands of rupees in the name of house sites. The aggrieved people occupied the govt. land and made their huts. They demanded house sites be allotted to the eligible and repayment of the money collected by the sarpanch.