Asifabad podu farmers seek Congress district in-charge’s help to protect their land

Say they will launch stir on the lines of podu farmers from Kondapalli village in Penchikalpet mandal if forest officials do not withdraw their move to reclaim their land

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: Around 200 podu farmers from Itikalapahad met Sirpur (T) Congress in-charge Ravi Srinivas in Hyderabad, seeking his help in preventing the Forest Department from reclaiming their land. They requested him to intervene immediately.

The farmers, including women, left the village on Thursday night and managed to reach the residence of Ravi Srinivas in Hyderabad by using different means of transit on Friday morning.

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Pouring out their problems to Srinivas, they apprehended that the forest officials were likely to take over their land, which would adversely affect their livelihood and throw their lives out of the gear.

The farmers announced that they would have to launch a stir on the lines of the podu farmers from Kondapalli village in Penchikalpet mandal if the forest officials did not withdraw their move to reclaim the land.

They said they were depending on the land for long now and that it was their only source of livelihood. They urged Srinivas to bring their plight to the notice of the government. The women burst into tears and touched Srinivas’ feet seeking his support in addressing the problem.

Srinivas told the farmers that he had already brought the issue to the notice of Panchayat Raj Minister Seethakka. He assured them that their land would not be reclaimed, adding that he had spoken to forest officials in this regard.

It may be noted that tension prevailed when officials of the Forest Department prevented farmers from tilling a piece of land at Danapur village in Asifabad mandal on May 31. The farmers claimed that they had been tilling the land for 75 years, but the officials were grabbing the land. Similar instances were reported in different parts of erstwhile Adilabad district recently.