Gantikota Raju, a farmer from Vaddera Colony at Rampur village in Toguta mandal, claims that he had about six acres of land – two acres of patta land and four acres of government land - for more than two-and-a-half decades. No one objected to him cultivating the land for the past two decades.
In April, he and many others from his village went forward to sell their land to the government under GO 123 for construction of Mallannasagar reservoir. In fact, they were the first ones to agree to sell their land to the government. They sold their land and received Rs. 6 lakh per acre for the patta land, but not for the government land under their occupation. While accepting that they were in possession of the government land for the past two decades, they claimed that they were not objected to cultivating the land though it was not assigned to them officially.
“We were promised by the officials and the Minister that we would get compensation for the government land under our procession. But nothing has materialised so far,” said Raju. The farmers claimed that the government officials had promised to offer Rs. 3.75 lakh per acre.
“These farmers have been cultivating the government land for the past three decades and some of them have even taken bank loan on the land. But officials are delaying compensation stating that these lands were not in farmers’ name in the official records. These farmers are worried and they regret selling their land to the government,” said Anjaneyulu, a resident of Rampur.
In a related development, the villagers of Rampur stalled a survey on September 12 opposing the government’s move to acquire another 400 acres of land in the village which would submerge it completely. They reportedly clarified to the local MLA, S. Ramalinga Reddy, that they were not ready to sell the remaining land for the reservoir.