SC panel seeks action to reclaim Dalit land in Parvatipuram-Manyam
AP SC Commission member Ravada Seetharam has urged the Parvatipuram-Manyam Collector to recover 12 acres of Dalit land allegedly encroached in Chintalabelagam village.
A member of the Andhra Pradesh State Commission for Scheduled Castes has asked the Parvatipuram-Manyam district administration to recover 12 acres of land in Chintalabelagam village that was allegedly taken over by influential persons.
In a note to Collector N. Prabhakar Reddy, Commission member Ravada Seetharam said the land had been under the cultivation of Scheduled Caste farmers before it was forcibly occupied. Following an earlier suggestion from the Commission, revenue authorities had reclaimed the land and installed a board marking it as government property.
That board was later removed by the encroachers, who resumed cultivation on the land and prevented Scheduled Caste farmers from entering the site, according to the note.
Mr. Seetharam said the revenue authorities must act seriously because the official board had been removed from the site. He called for immediate legal and criminal action against the encroachers and said the government should deliver justice to the previous Dalit farmers.
The Commission, he added, has been receiving a number of complaints about the grabbing of land belonging to Dalits in several parts of the State. The village falls in Jiyyammavalasa mandal of Parvatipuram-Manyam district.