Farmer Golamari China Tirupati Reddy ends life after losing land to WebLand scam in Prakasam

Markapuram (Prakasam): A farmer who lost his smallholding to WebLand manipulation by unscrupulous officials, the software of the revenue department, committed suicide in fear of losing it permanently. The government officials, who didn't address his pleas for years, finally announced that they will correct the online data and initiate action over the staff responsible. The farmer who lost his life in this incident is an example of thousands of farmers, who are making rounds to revenue and registrar offices begging officers to rectify the mistakes that deprive of their livelihood.

Golamari China Tirupati Reddy, of Meerzapet village in Tarlupadu Mandal of Prakasam district, was a small farmer with 1.64 acre land in the same village and had all valid documents on his and his wife's names.

In 2018, the local revenue officials removed the land from his name in the revenue department software and made others, Ketaboyina Malakondaiah and his aides as the owners of the farm land. Tirupati Reddy contested the decision and started to make complaints from village to district level.

As the ground level officials have to respond to the please even at the district level, all his applications for justice didn't serve their purpose. Last week, Tirupati Reddy made another request for justice at the grievance programme in the presence of the local MLA K Nagarjuna Reddy. But a couple of days later, Malakondaiah registered the land in the name of his son, allegedly managing the registration department officials despite having no documents. As there was no effective response from the officials and the land was registered in others' name, the dejected Tirupati Reddy consumed pesticide and ended his life on December 9.

As the news spread, Kandukur RDO G Obulesu, Podili CI E Sriram visited the family of the deceased at Government Hospital in Markapuram and conducted an enquiry with locals on Tuesday. The locals told the officials that the land belongs to the farmer, but Malakondaiah and others grabbed it with the connivance of revenue officials, particularly computer operator Yagna Praveen.

The RDO verified the files and instructed the Tarlupadu tahsildar G Srisaila Mallikarjuna Prasad to see the land notified in the passbook of the family of farmer Tirupati Reddy and complained to the Podili CI to proceed legally on Malakondaiah and his aides along with the computer operator Praveen.

The Tarlupadu tahsildar Mallikarjuna Prasad expressed suspicion that Malakondaiah showed his name as the owner for the land in the software to get it registered on his son's name. He said that there are many such instances in the area. The RDO Obulesu told The Hans India that the tahsildar had already served notices to both parties for a ground-level inquiry for correcting the online entries and it is in the process. He said that severe action would be taken on the involved officials from the revenue department after the departmental enquiry is complete.