It is water all around. The houses that witnessed heavy activity till recently have slowly become submerged. First the basement, then steps to the house. Windows, walls and roof.
The Godavari water submerged all these houses and other buildings in the village. The water reached the roof level of some houses. On the other side of the village, the water flowed into the fields.
Kotchhaguttapally village, of Chinnakodur mandal, is the first village in Siddipet district to be completely submerged by Godavari water from Annapurna reservoir that came up on the borders of Sircilla and Siddipet districts. The Annapurna reservoir was constructed with a capacity of 3.5 tmcft. While Anthagiri was submerged in Sircilla district, Kotchhaguttapally was submerged here.
This village had a population of about 300 with about 104 houses. More than 95% villagers are dependent on farming and allied activities. They used to cultivate vegetables and send them to the markets at Gangapur (6 km away), Siddipet (20 km), Sircilla (30 km) and Karimnagar (50 km). This is under Allipur revenue village and about 400 acres of agriculture land in the village was submerged.
There used to be a primary school and an anganwadi centre in the village. About a few years ago, the primary school had about 50 students and the last figure in the school was single digit as gradually everyone had vacated the village.
“Ours is the first village in Siddipet district, with more than eight decades of history, submerged by Godavari water under Annapurna reservoir, which is part of the Kaleshwaram project. I was born and brought up in this village. I worked as private teacher and now stopped working. I had lost three acres to the project and received ₹6 lakh per acre. We bid goodbye to our village on the night of April 19, 2020. Our village was buried on the bed of Godavari,” Kommagalla Ramanji, one of the villagers, told The Hindu.
"After shifting us to Lingareddypally Rehabilitation and Resettlement Colony, no one is hearing us. Promises made by officials are yet to be fulfilled. We do not know what to do now,”said E. Malla Reddy, another villager.