Khanapur: Tension prevailed for a while when forest officials appeared from nowhere and laid claimed on the lands being tilled by tribals and Dalits in Pembi mandal on Tuesday. The locals confronted them and forced them to leave.

According to locals, 40 years ago, then Chief Minister Late Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao himself came to Itikala and gave 70 to 80 acres of land to tribals and non-tribals.

Since then, Dalits and tribals have been tilling those lands and living on them. If we go into the details, the tribals of Itikala in Pembi mandal of Nirmal district are living on paddy farming and growing cotton. Suddenly, for the last three or four days, the forest department have been deploying a large number of personnel to take over those lands and dug holes to plant trees in those lands.

When the Podu farmers came to know about this, they went to their lands in large numbers. When the Forest officials tried to plant trees, the Dalits and tribals confronted them. They questioned how they could block the lands given to them 40 years ago. This led to a confrontation between the Forest officials, tribals and Dalits.

Tension prevails

A woman farmer tried to kill herself to take her land. After a fight between the officials and the farmers for a while, the Forest officials said that the land was theirs. But farmers said that the land belongs to them as they have been cultivating for 40 years and that they will not leave the lands even if they are killed.

The farmers had a big fight with the forest officials and asked them to temporarily stop taking possession of the lands and they turned back and left.