Ramulu - "Securing Rights with Knowledge as a Weapon"

Ramulu, a village youth of S.C community lives in Chellapur village of Doulatabad mandal in Mahabubnagar district. He studied upto Intermediate and was willing to take up some work which will be useful to his community and also for his livelihood. WASSAN selected him along with two other persons for surveying in the selected villages as part of the process of documenting land alienation issues in the area. Basic orientation and training was provided on land issues, related land records and information collection process. With these inputs Ramulu realized that the land (around one acre) assigned to his father which was subsequently mortgaged, can be regained as the transfer of assigned land is illegal and prohibited. This land was given to his father by the government around 30 years ago. For want of credit, his father mortgaged it at a cheap rate (for Rs. 700 only).

 

As part of the task Ramulu had access to MRO office and the land records. With the knowledge on land issues, he got the information about his land in the mandal revenue land records, and filed a case for restoration of it to the MRO. Though the purchasers initially put pressure and resisted his efforts, they were not successful. MRO also did not respond to it initially. With the full knowledge of the legal aspects, Ramulu filed a case in the police station and put pressure on MRO for appropriate action. There was no option for the purchasers but to surrender the land to him. In the process he not only gained his land, but also helped one more person to regain the alienated land (around one acre).This case demonstrates the importance of knowledge and access to basic land records for addressing the issue of land alienation. This also should be accompanied by some collective strength to withstand the pressures from the dominant sections. This opens up the possibilities of training community resource persons, who themselves are affected by the land transfer, to address the land alienation cases and restore to the eligible poor.