Someone told us it was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

Tekuri Manemma is a farmer of Aroor village located in Sadashivapet mandal of Sangareddy district.

She was assigned two acres of land in August 2005 by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and late Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. Since then, she has been running from pillar to post, trying to obtain possession of the land, but with no luck.Same is the case with Picchakuntla Chandramma, another farmer of this village who was also assigned land by the former Prime Minister. Her repeated appeals failed to get the attention of officials. Therefore, neither of them have been able to reap the benefits of the Rythu Bandhu scheme.

Vadde Nagamani was shown that the land belongs to her, but so far, patta certificates were not issued to her for reasons unknown. Two more women farmers – Uppari Lakshmi and Kotkur Narsamma – were assigned land, given possession, but the Rythu Bandhu scheme was not extended to them in the present phase.“Some top leader arrived in a helicopter and gave the land certificates to us in Medak. He hardly spent half an hour before leaving. We did not know his name. Later someone told us it was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” said one of the women farmers of the village.

Farmers who had both land and assignment certificates approached the officials to question why the scheme was not extended to them. They were informed that it would be extended after June 1. They were given papers that stated that their land was put in Part B under the Land Records Updation Programme (LRUP). However, according to the guidelines, only land under court dispute or family dispute need to be put under Part B.All India Kisan Sabha leader G. Jayaraj asks, “How can the government deny farmers the benefit when they were identified as landless poor and assigned the land by none other than the Prime Minister? When there is no court dispute, how were their land categorised under Part B?”

A revenue officer, on condition of anonymity, said more land was assigned than available in the village, creating a problem. “This was not sorted out for the past 13 years. However, we need the cooperation of villagers to sort out the issue,” the officer said.