A festival of woes for Medaram tribals

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WARANGAL: The biennial tribal festival, Sammakka Sarakka jatara,is time to celebrate for many, but for the tribals, it spells doom..

WARANGAL: The biennial tribal festival, Sammakka Sarakka jatara,is time to celebrate for many, but for the tribals, it spells doom as they stand to lose the second crop every alternative year. With no compensation from the government, they have taken to legal recourse to make good their loss.
The jatara, celebrated at Medaram, about 80 km from here, attracts lakhs of devotees and farm lands around are used for providing amenities to the visitors. The arrangements stretch to about 5 km covering 1,500 acres cultivated by 500 farmers of five villages.With government not responding to the demand for compensation for crop loss and causing damage to cultivable land, the villagers have moved the High Court.

Every time, the government issues an order for keep the land barren for the jatara and the tribals cannot go for the second crop either. Former Sarpanch of Oorattam village, Ch Jagannath Rao, has taken the matter to the Court and his plea was admitted on December 27.

Nearly 60 percent of the land that bears the brunt of the festival is cultivated by tribals and the rest is with SCs, in the five villages of Medaram, Oorattam, Kothuru, Kannepalli and Rddygudem.

Tadvai mandal tahasildar L Jeevakar Reddy said when the villagers have asked for compensation, the subcollector at Mulugu ordered a survey of the land and the report was sent to the collector's office. We are awaiting further instructions.

According to government data, 500 farmers live in the surrounding of the Medaram jatara venue. Only nine acres of land belongs to the endowments department, while 50 acres belong to the revenue department.