Bulldozers on Bhoodan lands kick up political dust Premium

A massive demolition drive in Khammam leaves over 1,800 residents homeless, igniting political controversy and protests over Bhoodan lands.

Just days before Holi, the colours of celebration were replaced by clouds of dust at Vinoba Navodaya Colony of Velugumatla village in Telangana’s Khammam. Early on February 24, bulldozers rolled in, turning rows of modest homes into piles of brick, tin and splintered wood even as hundreds of families were left staring at the ruins of lives they had built over decades.

“Darkness has fallen on our lives,” says B.Srinivas, 48, who works as a hamali (porter) at the agriculture market yard in Khammam, his voice breaking as he surveys the mound of debris that was once his home. The massive demolition drive on ‘Bhoodan’ lands at Velugumatla, he says, has left families like his homeless.

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Until recently, the small slum-like settlement, named after Gandhian leader Vinoba Bhave and inhabited by the working poor and daily wage labourers, bustled with the routines of daily life. Today, it stands deserted, with the occasional scrap dealer rummaging through the wreckage for bits of iron salvaged from the rubble.

The colony lies about six kilometres from Khammam city and sits close to the district’s nerve centre — the Integrated District Offices Complex (New Collectorate) at Velugumatla, along the Khammam-Wyra highway.

“They (the officials) came with dozens of earthmovers and tractor-trolleys, and were accompanied by hordes of police personnel,” recalls Srinivas, wiping tears. “Before we could even understand what was happening, the bulldozers started bringing our houses down without notice.”