“Officials and political leaders are threatening us to take the compensation or else the amount would be deposited in the court and we have to collect it from there. Unable to bear the pressure, many had accepted the compensation and signed the papers,” says Sarojana Vanjari, ferociously, a resident of this village in Toguta mandal of Medak district.
For the past three days, residents say many of them did not have sleep nor food. They are deep in thoughts about their uncertain future.
This is one of the three villages that would completely submerge under Mallannasagar reservoir as part of Kaleswaram project on Godavari. The two other villages include Vemulaghat and Pallepahad.
Rs 9,800 crore reservoir
For this, the government is acquiring about 16,000 acres. The Rs 9,800 crore reservoir with a storage of 50 tmc ft was expected to benefit five districts – Nizamabad, Medak, Warangal, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda.
As some of the houses were allotted numbers for land acquisition, the tempers in the village rose high and they gathered at the panchayat office on Saturday.
By around noon as many as 13 women, including old, fell down with blood pressure. After first aid, they were shifted to government hospital for further treatment.
In the neighbouring Erravalli, the situation was not much different. “Vacating village amounts to what? It is nothing less than death? How can we live at a new place where we know nothing, leaving the village where our older generations lived?” asks Nayani Ramachandram of this village.
“The compensation being offered by the government is meagre compared to market rate of land that we lose. No one is coming forward to purchase our lands as they are going to submerge and the government is not offering right price. What should we do now?” asked Kishtamma.
