Kumra Laxmibai struggle to liberate her lands and those of her compatriots at the village of Dahiguda in the Pippaldhari gram panchayat of the Adilabad district stands out for its opposition to the encroachment of land by non-tribal people, which had the support of Naxalites. The Telangana government is to honour her as a woman achiever on International Women’s Day, March 8.
“We are cultivating about 30 acres of land belonging to me, Madavi Bapu Rao and Tekam Ramu, which was encroached,” says the gritty, illiterate woman. A civil suit on the matter of the lands is pending in court. The Utnoor Integrated Tribal Development Agency Project Officer R.V. Karnan green-signalled the cultivation of the contested lands on the basis of documentation existing in the name of the Adivasis in question.
“We were told to vacate portions of our lands in favour of non-tribal people by Naxalites. They wanted to appease the encroachers in order to prevent them from turning into informers,” observed Madavi Laxman.
Ms. Laxmibai’s struggle for her land began about a dozen years ago when she first met revenue authorities in Adilabad to sort out the issue. “I did not get any support from them despite being backed by provisions of Land Transfer Regulations, including the LTR 1 of 1970,” she recalled.
“The revenue officials, in fact, committed gross injustice by recording much smaller extents of land than we owned in our names when they came for an inquiry following our complaints. As for the non-tribals, they even beat up our people some three years back, aiming to threaten us into quitting the struggle,” Ms. Laxmibai added.
“The Kolam (name of the tribe) woman’s struggle can be equated with the separate Telangana struggle,” said Telangana State Director, Department of Language and Culture, Mamidi Hari Krishna, explaining the rationale for selecting Ms. Laxmibai for the award. “The honour will be apt recognition of her effort.”
