The public hearing conducted in the aftermath of the district revenue officials issuing a land acquisition notification at Penumaka ended on an acrimonious note on Tuesday.
With the locals insisting on the revenue officials recording their oral objections and the officials maintaining that only written objections would go on record, the meeting was called off.
Unruly scenes
The meeting witnessed unruly scenes after YSR Congress Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy kicked a table and his followers threw a few chairs. The police intervened and brought the situation under control.
The district administration had given a notification to acquire 660 acres of land in Penumaka village on April 11. Any objections by locals should be filed within 60 days. Some of them filed a petition in the High Court.
Locals from the two river-front villages of Penumaka and Undavalli had been resisting the moves of the government to acquire lands for the last three years. Backed by the Opposition parties, NGOs, and civil society, the villagers continued to till the land producing a variety of vegetables and fruits.
On Tuesday, the villagers were again called for the public hearing.
Deputy Collector Ramakrishnaiah and two tahsildars attended the meeting and, during the course of the meeting, some of the villagers demanded that the revenue officials record their oral objections.
Mr. Ramakrishna Reddy also insisted of the Revenue Department recording the oral objections, and said the refusal to record the same could be treated as contempt of court. In the melee that followed, the villagers left the meeting.
“We have been resisting the moves of the government to acquire our multi- cropped lands since 2014. And now, the government is using the Land Acquisition Act to snatch away our lands. We will continue to oppose any move to acquire our lands,” said Balaji Reddy of Penumaka.
