Girl attacked in presence of official

Medak: Chowdaram Shyamala, the girl who has been fighting to protect her 1.5 acre ancestral property in Chinnakodur Mandal, was attacked by the alleged encroachers of the property, that, too, in front of the Mandal Surveyor who went there to re-survey the disputed land as ordered by the Joint Collector. ‘The Young Hans’ carried a story about Shyamala and her fight for justice over a month ago. After that, she was assured by the Joint Collector that he would personally supervise a re-survey of the disputed land. Another newspaper reported that her land would be surveyed last week in the presence of the Joint collector.

However on November 20, Shekhar, the Mandal Surveyor, went to the land to re-survey it. Shyamala was present at the location, when Naluvula Raju and Naluvula Tirupati, the encroacher’s supporters, started abusing her and asked her why she had come. She was also repeatedly slapped by them, following heated arguments. Though Shyamala was pressurised by middlemen not to lodge a complaint, she didn’t heed their warnings, and lodged a complaint at the Chinnakodur police station.

“We pin a lot of hope on Smita Sabharwal, the newly appointed Collector of Medak, and we will continue to have that hope. But who will be responsible if something happens to my sister?” questioned Shyamala’s younger brother.

Shyamala hails from a poor family, having three brothers, a mentally challenged father and a mother, who is a daily-wage farm labourer. She has been making rounds of MRO office, RDO office, Collector's office, even the CM's camp office, for the past couple of years, to protect the little agricultural land, which she claims is her ancestral property.