Four months after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao held discussions with the farmers and residents of three villages — Thanedarpally, Bailampur and Mamidyala — the works for Kondapochamma reservoir commenced at Thanedarpally on Saturday.
The work for soil testing began and this was confirmed by Gajwel Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) Vijayender Reddy. He said the works were being taken up on fields where there was no crop and in one field the works had been taken up with the consent of farmer as the crop was still not harvested. He clarified that the work would be taken up only in the fields which were already sold to the government.
After recent uproar from the villagers of Thanedarpally, the officials spoke with them and tried to clear their doubts stating that work under rehabilitation and resettlement were being taken up.
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Irrigation tank
However, some of the villagers stopped the work on the grounds that the works were meant for irrigation and not for drinking water as directed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) or by the High Court.
“Despite repeated appeals, the officials failed to provide us the orders issued by the High Court, which we wanted to go through. We wanted to know whether the works are related to irrigation or drinking water and if the work is for drinking water why are such huge canals being dug?” asked Venkatram Reddy of Thanedarpally.
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While admitting that he had represented the Congress party as Mandal Praja Parishat president, he said that he was questioning of officials as resident of village not as a political leader.
He clarified that some of legal experts had endorsed the questioning of the government stand on grounds that continuing works was violation of directions issued by court.
However, the villagers said that works were being taken up in fields which were already sold to the government.