Slowly, but surely, the district administration is getting ready to get vacated the villages facing submergence under Mallannasagar. Oustees from almost all eight villages have already vacated their houses and shifted to the Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) Colony at Mutrajpally near Gajwel.
There are a large number of oustees still staying at Etigaddakishtapur and Vemulaghat villages and they are fighting cases in the court seeking justice. They are reluctant to vacate the village.
The district administration has held series of meetings with them to leave the village. According to sources, while some 20 families were shifted in the late evening of Wednesday, 24 more families were shifted on Thursday. Officials have arranged vehicles to transport the goods of the 44 families of oustees so that it could be a smooth affair for both the sides and officials arranging vehicles was also not new.
Some of the oustees, in the past, have openly expressed their willingness to vacate the village provided they were extended R&R Package while they would await the court’s judgement in the case on compensation to their lands.
“On Wednesday vehicles were arranged to those willing to relocate to the R&R Colony and there was no force from the officials. Oustees have been promised that they would be immediately provided accommodation and there will be no waiting. Hence they shifted,” one of the oustees from Etigaddakishtapur, on condition of anonymity, told The Hindu . The oustees are being accommodated at the double bedroom houses constructed at Sangapur as well as in the R&R Colony and they are also being given the package cheques of ₹ 7.5 lakh. Those who opted for double bedroom houses under the package were allotted houses in the colony while others were accommodated at Sangapur, according to Revenue Divisional Officer M. Anantha Reddy.
As part of shifting of the oustees, officials evicted some of the illegal occupants of houses in R&R Colony. On Wednesday some four families who had illegally occupied the vacant houses at Mutrajpally were forcibly vacated and sent to temporary accommodation.
