Several tribal farmers mainly comprising women staged a protest at Lingaram Thanda in Kusumanchi mandal opposing a survey of their agricultural lands for the proposed bypass road as part of the Khammam-Suryapet highway expansion project.
A group of tribal farmers stopped the Revenue Department’s field staff from conducting the land survey at Lingaram Thanda on Wednesday.
The agitated farmers alleged that the move to acquire their agricultural lands for the bypass would snatch away their sole source of livelihood.
A section of them contended that the “meagre” monetary compensation would be of no use as they would lose their sustainable source of income forever.
Moti, a tribal farmer, strongly objected to the move saying she had turned her agricultural land into a dependable source of subsistence by digging a well and toiling hard against all odds after long years of hard work.
“I can't afford to lose my land at any cost,” she fumed while standing in front of her farm land at Lingaram Thanda.
The Revenue officials concerned met the aggrieved farmers and tried to persuade them seeking their cooperation for speedy completion of the highway expansion project.
However, some of the farmers reportedly refused to part ways with their lands seeking expansion of the highway along its original path devoid of the bypass.
Sources in the Revenue Department, however, said that the survey resumed in the revenue village late in the afternoon.
