Dalits complain of caste bias in award of relief package

UR Palem (Amaravati): P. Prakash, a Dalit from riverfront village of UR Palem located a stone’s throw from the foundation stone laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the seed capital on October 23, 2015 at a glittering function, complained of caste prejudice in extending package to the farmers, who offered their lands for the capital.

They allege that government is extending annuity to only upper caste farmers

Gonzalo Castro de la Mata, Chairman, and Birigit Kuba. Operations Officer, of the Inspection Panel of the World Bank interacted with a group of inhabitants of Pathapalle (SC colony), a hamlet of UR Palem as part of their three-day visit in the capital villages to inquire into certain complaints over the World Bank’s funding of Rs 3,800 crore for infrastructure development in the capital. The panel covered Rayapudi, Nidamarru, UR Palem during the second day of the visit.

“There is discrimination between the SC farmers enjoying assigned lands and their upper caste counterparts in extending annuity for the lands taken over by the government for the capital under the land pooling scheme”, he complained to the panel.

Dalits have been denied annuity on the ground of cultivating assigned lands even as the farmers from the upper castes have been receiving Rs 50,000 per acre. “We cultivated all the commercial crops such as banana and turmeric as the upper caste farmers did until the lands were notified for the capital. Then, why is this discrimination”, he questioned.

Mostly Dalits were enjoying 5,000 acres of assigned lands in the island patches of the Krishna river and in 29 capital villages in the plains. A similar sort of discrimination was `discernible’ even in distributing returnable plots in lieu of agriculture lands given for the capital, according to Prakash. The upper caste farmers received plots each per acre admeasuring 1,400 sq.yards per acre while Dalits were offered only 1,000 sq.yards, he alleged.

P. Mary, a widow with two children, is deprived of annuity for her one acre of land and a pension of Rs 2,500 given to farm workers, who lost employment in view of capital. “The government said I am not eligible to claim the pension since I am a farmer. I was denied annuity either on the ground that my land was assigned by the government”, she said. Mary said she is struggling hard to make her both ends meet after denial of succour from the government.

P Ashanathi, said she switched to tailoring after loss of employment as a worker in farm fields due to the capital location. The landless Ashanathi used to get Rs 150-200 per day as a daily wage in the fields earlier. Her monthly pension reaches her once in three or even four months and tailoring is failing to give her an assured income as in the case of her farm work. She said in the negative when the panel chairman sought to know whether the CRDA gave her training in promotion of alternative livelihoods.

Papa Rao, a farm worker, turned a fruit vendor after dislocated from the farm fields. “I am not allowed to sell fruits outside the secretariat for the last 10 days. Officials said I need permission from the government for my business”, he told the panel. G. Subba Rao, a farmer, complained that he was not covered under the loan waiver scheme extended to the capital farmers as an incentive for surrendering their lands for the capital on the ground that he remained outside the land pooling scheme.

By G Nagaraja