Telangana: Outsiders own more than half of farm lands in Siddipet’s Tunkikhalsa village

Since the unified State witnessed drought from 1995 to 2014, a study revealed that farmers were pushed into debt traps during the period

Siddipet: A case study of Tunkikhalsa village in Wargal mandal has revealed that villagers sold more than half of their lands to outsiders in less than two decades. Government school teacher and social activist Puli Raju, who has been teaching in the primary school at Tunkikhalsa for seven years, took up the study on land holdings in the village and found many interesting facts that were never discussed constructively.

The village is 20 km from the Outer Ring Road (ORR) and 6 km from the Rajiv Rahadhari. It had 2,316 acres of cultivable land. However, villagers sold 1,203 acres of land, more than half, to outsiders. The first such sale to an outsider was reported in 2006 in the village.

Though some land transactions occurred among the villagers, outsiders now have a major share of land holdings. One man from Khammam had bought about 120 acres of land in the village.

The social activist went on to study the social aspect of selling these land holdings and found that even a considerable number of members of upper castes also sold out their lands. Out of 930 families in the village, 396 families were landless while only 36 forward caste families out of 65 had lands now.

Out of these 534 families, 225 families had below one acre of land.

Rs 2 crore per acre 

Speaking to Telangana Today, Raju, who has been working on farmers’ suicides in the State for more than two decades, said farmers in the village had sold lands for as low as a few thousand rupees per acre in 2006. The price of the same land now was an astonishing Rs.2 crore per acre.

Since the State witnessed drought from 1995 to 2014, Raju said farmers were pushed into debt traps during the period. The selling of the land was an indication that the farmers could not earn any profits from agriculture in that period.

Their losses in farming forced them to sell their lands to rich landlords from outside as not many villagers had the financial capacity to purchase them.

It is not only the story of Tunkikhalsa, Raju says, claiming that at present, this was the state of landholdings in every village in Telangana.

While the villages located close to Hyderabad sold a major share of lands to outsiders, he said the farmers living in faraway villages sold relatively less chunk of lands to outsiders.

Caste wise population:-

Total: 930 families

ST:-05

SC:-230

BC:-630

OC:- 65

Muslims- 40

Caste-wise land-holding families

ST -Nil

SC -135

BC -363

OC -36

Muslims-25

Total 534

Total cultivable land: 2,316 acres

Outsiders holding: 1,203 acres

Villagers holding: 1,113 acres