KURNOOL: Police intercepted Kadapa MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy and former MP Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy while they were proceeding to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s programme on Wednesday and placed them under house arrest in the YSR Congress office at Pulivendula in Kadapa district.
However, after a little while, the police permitted Mr. Avinash Reddy to proceed to Pydipalem in Simhadripuram mandal to take part in the programme organised to release water from Gandikota reservoir to Pydipalem reservoir after he produced an invitation card he received by virtue of protocol.
Human Rights Forum district convener K. Jayasri, who led an agitation by the Gandikota project-displaced families, was also placed under house arrest.
Meanwhile, the displaced families of 14 submersible villages, who were promised compensation of Rs.6.75 lakh per family, were sore at being issued cheques for Rs.3.75 lakh.
The government’s decision to deduct Rs.1.16 lakh for infrastructure development to rehabilitate the displaced left the beneficiaries discontented, Ms. Jayasri said.
Villagers of Chowtapalle were denied the promised additional compensation of Rs.1 lakh, as they agitated by blocking the National Highway, Ms. Jayasri alleged.
The displaced families of other villages, who had been given cheques for Rs.1.86 lakh towards housing in the past, were given cheques for Rs.3.75 lakh on January 9, she said.
The compensation of Rs.479 crore announced by the government included partial compensation paid during the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and N. Kiran Kumar Reddy governments, Ms. Jayasri added.
The compensation paid was not in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, she said.
“The district administration has not alerted people of the submersible villages to move out. It has released water to the Gandikota reservoir expecting that the affected people would leave upon inundation of the villages,” the HRF leader alleged.
Nearly 200 families in Chowtapalle left the village as their mud houses collapsed. Bommepalle village had been water-logged for over a month, she said.
Several families moved over to Kondapuram and Sugamanchipalle, and their children, who are presently studying SSC, might lose an academic year, as they cannot attend their previous schools, she said, and urged the district administration to make alternative arrangements for them.
