Compensation row delays canal work

KHAMMAM: The State government had earlier initiated a survey for the acquisition of 1,900 acres of land in Khammam district to construct a 66-km-long canal that connects Palair reservoir and the Sri Sitarama Lift Irrigation project. However, the farmers of Tirumalayapalem and Kusumanchi mandals — where 835 acres of land awaits acquisition — demand that the officials finalise the compensation for their lands before taking up the survey work.

These farmers continue to obstruct survey officials from collecting information in the mandals. “First, the government must decide the price for our lands. We want to know how much compensation we would get. All of us are set to lose one to two acres. We will permit survey only after we are told what the price is,” said K Rama Rao, one of the farmers.

“In the open market, one acre of land costs `40 lakh. There is no clarity on whether we would be given the same,” he added.   Another farmer, K Srinivasa Reddy from Beerolu village, said, “I am losing 5 acres of land. How will I know if I’m getting the market price if the government doesn’t announce it?”

The officials taking up the survey, meanwhile, says the government cannot announce the compensation before the survey. In fact, Additional District Collector Madhusudhan Rao and RDO Ravindranath had convened a meeting with the farmers recently. But the latter group stood by their demand. The Additional District Collector said that the government was doing what was best for the farmers. “We will try to pay them the maximum compensation. But we cannot announce it now.”Owing to the dispute, the work has been stalled in the two mandals.