Bulldozers on Bhoodan lands kick up political dust

Just a few days before Holi, the celebratory colors were replaced by clouds of dust at Vinoba Navodaya Colony in Velugumatla village in Telangana’s Khammam. As bulldozers moved in early on February 24, turning rows of modest homes into piles of bricks, tin and splintered wood, hundreds of families continued to stare at the ruins of lives they had built over decades.

“Darkness has fallen on our lives,” says 48-year-old B.Srinivas. porter (a porter)’s voice quavers as he examines the pile of rubble that was once his home at the agricultural market in Khammam. He says the massive demolition work on ‘Bhoodan’ lands in Velugumatla has left families like him homeless.

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The small shanty-like settlement, named after Gandhian leader Vinoba Bhave and inhabited by the working poor and daily wage labourers, was until recently filled with the routines of daily life. Today it remains abandoned, with scrap dealers occasionally rummaging through the wreckage for pieces of iron salvaged from the wreckage.

The colony is located about six kilometers from Khammam city and is located close to the Integrated District Offices Complex (New Collectorate) at Velugumatla along the Khammam-Wyra highway, the nerve center of the district.

“They (officials) arrived with dozens of construction machines and tractor trolleys and were accompanied by a large number of police personnel,” Srinivas recalls, wiping his tears. “Before we knew what was happening, bulldozers started demolishing our houses without warning.”

Srinivas is among the many residents who were displaced by the demolition in Vinoba Navodaya Colony and are now facing an uncertain future.

Sources say that during the day-long operation, around 600 structures, including kutcha and pucca houses, were razed to the ground and more than 1,800 people were left homeless.

However, the story of these lands goes back several decades. Inspired by the Bhoodan movement led by Vinoba Bhave in the 1950s, a local landowner named Kalavala Raja Rama Rao reportedly donated 62 acres and seven guntas of land in Survey Nos. 147, 148 and 149 in Velugumatla in 1953.

In April 2014, just before the formation of Telangana, the Andhra Pradesh Bhoodan Board distributed pattas of 100 square meters each to 1,895 poor beneficiaries in Velugumatla. “I built my house with my hard-earned savings and money taken through gold loan,” says Srinivas, holding a tattered copy of the minutes published by the Andhra Pradesh Bhoodan Board dated April. 23, 2014, allotted him a plot in Bhoodan land.

Years of backbreaking work and careful economy vanished within hours when the bulldozers arrived, he says. The distraught person asks, “Where should we go now? How will I pay off the gold debt and hold my daughter’s wedding after graduation?” porterHe is currently staying in a government-run temporary shelter at Ambedkar Bhavan in Khammam.

Many other displaced families in the crowded halls of Ambedkar Bhavan reflect the same sense of uncertainty about the future.

Officials claim that the demolition was carried out to clear unauthorized constructions on Bhoodan land. Soon after the operation, district officials announced the ‘recovery’ of 31 acres and seven guntas of Bhoodan land, estimated to be worth over ₹ 250 crore.

The demolition triggered anger in Khammam, long considered a traditional stronghold of Left parties. Aggrieved members of displaced families staged protests condemning their eviction and demanding justice.

The issue snowballed into a broader political debate, drawing harsh reactions from many parties, including the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party. The controversy also led to a war of words between the ruling Congress and the main opposition BRS, with both sides blaming each other over the handling of the ‘Bhoodan land issue’.

A section of Congress leaders alleged that an organization claiming to work for the rural poor was distributing fake pattas to unsuspecting landless families. The accusation was vehemently denied by local leaders of the organization concerned.

Trade expenses of the parties

Over the last few days, a steady stream of leaders from various political parties and mass organizations representing weaker sections have visited Khammam to express solidarity with the displaced families.

Opposition leaders criticized the demolition attempt, describing the “bulldozing” of homes belonging to poor families as “cruel and insensitive”.

CPI (Marxist) leaders alleged that the action violated the spirit of the Bhoodan movement. CPI(M) district secretary Nunna Nageshwara Rao says, “Bhoodan land is for the landless and homeless poor. Demolishing the houses built by the oppressed against all odds defeats the spirit of the Bhoodan movement.”

The demolition of Velugumatla drew criticism even from Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The statement said the Telangana government was “tarnishing the legacy” of Vinoba Bhave by demolishing houses built and owned by beneficiaries of the voluntary land donation drive.

The issue has also attracted the attention of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. Member Jatothu Hussain Nayak visited the displaced families of Vinobhanagar in Khammam on March 1, where the aggrieved residents described the sudden destruction and loss of their homes.

Expressing serious concern over the plight of the displaced families, many of whom belonged to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Nayak assured them that justice would be done.

State Secretary of the Communist Party of India and MLA from Kothagudem, Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao, questioned the veracity of the “brutal” operation. “Arbitrary demolition of their homes without notice is inhumane,” he said while visiting displaced families in Khammam, adding that authorities should conduct house-to-house searches to identify ineligible beneficiaries, if any.

“It is extremely reprehensible that the poor are literally dragged onto the streets and create panic among children, women and the elderly,” he said.

Sambasiva Rao noted that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had earlier stated in the State Assembly that pattas would be given to poor people living in Bhoodan lands across the state. He said ministers from Khammam district should take the initiative to ensure justice for displaced families.

Criticisms were also voiced by leaders of other parties. State BJP President N. Ramchander Rao visited Velugumatla and accused the ruling Congress government of carrying out a series of demolitions targeting poor people’s homes across the state, while allegedly circumventing legal procedures against real estate interests.

Harsh criticism also came from BRS working president KTRama Rao, who accused the Congress dispensation in Telangana of unleashing “anarchy” by destroying roofs over the heads of the poor. He promised that his party would help displaced residents explore legal options to achieve justice.

Some of the displaced residents are in the temporary shelter set up at Ambedkar Bhavan in Khammam. | Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

Khammam District Collector Anudeep Durishetty said the demolition work in Bhoodan land was carried out as per legal process. According to the district administration, the encroached Bhoodan land was taken back by the government on the orders of the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration and the Supreme Court, thus preserving valuable public lands. “A joint investigation revealed forged documents and illegal allotments of Bhoodan land in Velugumatla. Criminal cases have been registered against several persons in this regard and further action has been initiated under the law,” he said.

Residents’ fears over minister’s word

Stating that a detailed socio-economic survey is ongoing in Velugumatla, Revenue and Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said that all eligible families among those who lost their homes will be provided with home-site pattas and houses in their hometown under the Indiramma housing scheme: “Measures will be taken to provide them with home-site pattas by March 15.”

But for many displaced families in temporary shelters set up at Ambedkar Bhavan and TTDC in Khammam, such assurances have done little to ease the current uncertainty. Some claim that the demolition attempt was part of a larger design. “A few maverick real estate agents with political clout have long been conspiring to alienate us from Vinoba Colony to expand their real estate business in Velugumatla,” said a displaced resident, referring to the area’s rapid growth as a well-connected residential area on the outskirts of the city.

The timing of the release, just before the exam season, also sparked criticism from many quarters. “How can they bulldoze our houses without thinking about the impact on our children who are preparing for SSC exams?” said Punem Kondal Rao, an Adivasi resident in his 40s. he asks. He works as a watchman in the town.

V. He says some school books belonging to his elder daughter, a Class 10 student of Zilla Parishad High School in Venkatayapalem, were lost in the chaos.

He has been living in the colony with his family of four since 2014. They initially stay in a temporary structure, then pool their savings and borrow money from a self-help group to build a pucca house.

He argues that nine houses in the colony were saved from demolition following the court’s status quo orders. “The orders apply to the entire poll number. If that is the case, the act of demolition itself is unwarranted,” he points out.

Another displaced resident says that some residences in Vinoba Colony have even been assigned house numbers: “We had been living here for several years even before the opening of the New Collectorate in 2023.”

According to him, the sharp rise in land values ​​around the new Collectorate located near the Khammam-Wyra highway had drawn the attention of real estate agents to Bhoodan lands in the area. “Some politically well-connected established elements are trying to usurp these lands,” he claims, requesting anonymity. It also demands the government to publish a white paper on the status of the entire Bhoodan land parcel of over 60 acres in Velugumatla.

As the dust settles on the flattened colony, displaced families say they are preparing for a protracted struggle, backed by growing solidarity from political parties, activists and civil society groups. Their demands are clear: reconstruction of their homes on the same site and compensation for the destroyed homes.

For many, the loss is not just property, but also the fragile security created by years of work and meager earnings. Dhanamma, 55, a maid, remembers watching helplessly as her house was destroyed. “Five years ago, I built it brick by brick using the money I had saved my whole life. It collapsed before my eyes,” he sobs.

He adds that removing them from Bhoodan lands defeats the purpose of large landowners voluntarily donating land to the poor and needy under the historic Bhoodan movement. The woman, who currently lives with her family in a cramped temporary shelter, says renting a house is beyond her means. But despite the uncertainty and difficulties, he remains determined. “We will not leave Velugumatla no matter what,” Dhanamma says firmly.