‘Hollowness’ of works at R&R colony comes to the fore

Singam Ramesh, a farmer of Thanedarpally village in Mulugu mandal, had to forgo his one acre land and a house for the Kondapochammasagar reservoir. He got due compensation. As his village got submerged under the reservoir, he was forcibly vacated from the village along with others. The authorities had mobilised a huge police force in March despite lockdown being in force and they were shifted to a Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) Colony located at Tunkibollaram.

Almost after six months, on August 31, Ramesh decided to expand his house and construct another room for one of his sons staying with him. However, he was in for a huge shock as the works began. Ramesh got the open area adjacent to his house dug using a drilling machine for constructing the additional room. After digging for some depth, the mud caved in and the area became completely hollow.

“As the entire basement became hollow, we have to fill it with concrete before starting work on the room. We are the only ones who took up this work and were able to know that the basement was hollow. We do not know about the others as no one else has started any building activity,” Singam Raju, brother of Ramesh told The Hindu.

“We were stunned seeing the hollow basement. It will cost us more now as we have to fill the basement with concrete before taking up any construction activity,” said Ramesh’s son Swamy.

This is not the first time such complaints are being made by the oustees. In the past also, basements caving in when repair works were taken up have been reported by the oustees.