Mulugu: Women climb atop water tank to protest against forest officials

Mulugu: Scores of Podu farmers had staged a protest at Chinna Boinpally village of Eturnagaram mandal when the forest officials raised objections over tilling the land in the disputed survey no 98 at the village on Saturday. As many as seven women farmers have even climbed the water tank and threatened to jump off the tank. However, the police, forest officials and others convinced them to scale down the tank, promising that the issue could be resolved by the State government. Madakam Saraiah, a farmer, said that they had been tilling the land for several decades, but the forest officials prevented them from tilling the land. They said that the land did not belong to the Forest Department.

“The records in the Dharani website show that more than 800 acres of the land under Survey no 98 belonged to the Revenue department,” another farmer said, and urged the forest department to resolve the issue by conducting a joint survey with the revenue department. The forest department prevented the people from cultivating the forest land of nearly 300 hectares, adjacent to the national highway 163 in 2017 itself. It also decided to take up plantations in the country under the Telanganaku Haritha Haram (THH) programme.