On the outskirts of Etigaddakishtapur village, in Toguta mandal, a tall board fixed to iron poles cautions visitors to keep away. “This is not a pathway. Reservoir works are on. Heavy vehicles are moving. Movement by others is prohibited,” read the letters in red, blue and green colours on the board.
True to the warning on the board, heavy trucks were moving with huge loads in top gear in the area.
The huge Mallannasagar bund — being built out of mounds of sand, black and red soil, gravel — is clearly visible standing high on the other side of the road and one has to lift his head high to see its top. About a kilometre away from the spot in the heart of the village a group of senior citizens — Anasuya and her friends — are sitting on the patio of a house. Hardly 300m away from where they are sitting work on building of the bund is going on round-the-clock. Mallannasagar, part of the larger Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, on its completion would submerge a number of villages, including Etigaddakishtapur.
All of the senior citizens gathered on the patio and their neighbours have been spending sleepless nights for the past few years. They have watched the greenery and many structures disappear under the bund right before their eyes and the bund has slowly crept up right next to their village.
“We are yet to receive a part of the compensation. Most of us who are being displaced by the Mallannasagar are not in a position to buy farm land anywhere else as the price of land elsewhere has skyrocketed and the we were paid a mere ₹ 6 lakh per acre. On the other hand the persons displaced from Vemulaghat village were paid ₹ 11.5 lakh per acre. We do not know why this discrimination and why we have been discriminated against? Who will address our problem?” ask Anasuya and others, tears rolling their cheeks. Their repeated queries have not been answered for the past two years.
Few kilometres away is Mogilicheruvu Tanda, a tribal hamlet under the Etigaddakishtapur panchayat. The ride to the Tanda is sure to send shivers down the spine. There are huge deep pits on both sides of the approach road and some of them are full of water. It definitely requires guts to live in the Tanda. The living conditions have worsened for the past several months, if not years. It is becoming a herculean task for residents to reach their homes.
Further, the tribals who are traditionally herders have been forced to sell away their livestock as the greenery has vanished under the Mallannasagar project.
“I have sold my 60 goat recently unable to rear them and kept only two for festival. There is no green fodder or water in our habitation. Same was the case with cows and bullocks. Out of the six, we have retained only two. We do not know how to take care of them once we leave this place,” Ajmeera Lavanya, a resident of this Tanda told The Hindu .
