With water set to be pumped into Kondapochamma Reservoir by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on May 29, the district officials made a last minute effort to appease a group of oustees from one of the villages that would be submerged by the reservoir and their properties in the to be submerged village resurveyed on Tuesday.
Late on Monday evening a some officials knocked the doors of the tin-roof single room accommodation as part of the Tunkibollaram Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) Colony given as rehabilitation to a few of the oustees of Mamidyala village in Mulugu mandal. These were the 22 oustees of Mamidyala who had been demanding compensation under Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act – 2013 (LA Act – 2013).
These oustees had petitioned the district administration long back that their houses, lands and trees were not measured by the authorities properly resulting in losses for them and wanted the measurement to be done again.
“Based on your applications submitted on May 19, 2020, to resurvey your houses, lands and trees, the Collector, Siddipet, has issued orders on May 23 to conduct resurvey. This will be held on May 26. The officials of forest, Horticulture, Rural Water Supply, Roads and Buildings and surveyors will visit your village. Hence your are requested to be present there,” was the notice served on Pachimadla Srinivas on May 25, at 7.55 p.m.
These villagers who had moved court to seek compensation under LA Act 2013 were forcibly vacated on the night of April 30 by the authorities with the help of police and dumped at the Tunkibollaram R&R Colony. They were accommodated in the steel roofing single room houses. After it was taken to the notice of the High Court, the court directed Siddipet IV Additional District Judge S. Saritha to visit and the villages and the interact with oustees of Mamidyala and Bahilampur and submit a report on the incident.
On Tuesday, the 22 oustees were taken with police escort to the Mamidyala village by the officials. The officials conducted a resurvey of the houses that were dismantled in addition to counting of trees and measuring lands.
“The measurements are not properly done even this time. Officials are reeling out the same old measurements stating that the details will be finalised at RDO office,” V. Devi Reddy, one of the oustees told The Hindu.
“My three acres land was not there in the first list and it was not measured in the past. Now they have measured it,” said Mr. Pachimadla Srinivas.