Vemulaghat residents, who sought the Telugu copies of detailed project report (DPR), presented themselves before the special land acquisition officer and Revenue Divisional Officer A. Muthyam Reddy and posed several questions during a personal hearing on Monday.
“Why the wrong DPR was presented to the villagers? The court direction was not followed in toto ? Why the fourth part of DPR containing maps was not handed over to us? In the DPR it was mentioned Kondapochamma reservoir capacity was only 7 tmcft, but what is the actual capacity? Is the project being constructed with same capacity?” asked the villagers. They also demanded criminal action against the officials who had submitted a ‘wrong DPR’ and that to be noted in the minutes that would be submitted to the court.
They were furious over the competent authority from Irrigation Department not attending the meeting. They urged the RDO to mention that the competent authority was not present hence the villagers wanted the meeting postponed.
“The government has escalated the project cost to several thousands crores of rupees, then why not the cost of land that is being acquired for the project? Will the cost of land remain constant even after two years? Why the government has been digging gravity canal from Mallannasagar to Kondapochamma which will be submerged in the project at a latter stage” the villagers asked.
“Water to the tune of 0.75 tmcft per day can be pumped every day from Ranganaik Sagar to Mallannasagar and even after running for four months we can get only 90 tmcft. You have proposed 11 lakh acres irrigation from Mallannasagar, Kondapochamma, Gandhamalla and Basvapur and as per DPR between 70 to 90 tmcft water was required for the irrigation. How can you store about another 100 tmcft after feeding for irrigation and divert water to Singur and Nizamsagar?” asked Dontula Lakshmi Narayana, a retired engineer and lawyer, who attended the meeting.
The RDO promised to record all their objections and doubts and forward them to the officials concerned.
