Land losers seek fair deal from power utilities

Lakhs of farmers in the State are awaiting full compensation for lands given by them for construction of electrical installations and they are hoping that the government will pay heed to the suggestion made by the A.P Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) to frame guidelines in this regard at the earliest.

As per a conservative estimate by the Consortium of Indian Farmers’ Associations (CIFA), the value of 4.20 crore square yards of agricultural land in India has permanently diminished due to laying of foundations for transmission towers by the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL).

Compensation was paid in a few cases after the farmers approached courts and the issue is still to be sorted out at the national level with only Maharashtra and Kerala making some meaningful progress so far.

CIFA founder and advocate P. Chengal Reddy told

The Hindu that there were over 4,000 such towers between Manubolu in Nellore district and Kondapalli near Vijayawada, Tamil Nadu and Adoni (Kurnool), Krishnapatnam and Anantapur, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, and Kondapalli and Telangana.

Only a handful of farmers got compensation, that too after intervention by the courts. Foundation for a tower is laid in 600 square yards and the towers weigh on an average 15 tonnes.

‘Implementation has

become a casualty’

The Supreme Court had in various judgments asserted that power utilities are under the obligation to fully compensate the lands acquired for electrical installations, but implementation has become a casualty as there are no definite guidelines.

“The APERC is expected to prevail on the power utilities, both government and private, which are supposed to pay cent per cent compensation to the farmers as they are in the business of generating and selling power,” Mr. Chengal Reddy asserted.