With no let up in the two-month-old agitation by land oustees of Mallannasagar reservoir demanding higher compensation, another section of people have launched a similar stir near Zaheerabad in the same district against acquisition of land to set up National Investment and Manufacturing Zone.
Residents of 18 villages of Jarasangam and Nyalakal mandals are protesting against acquisition of 12,600 acres of their land at a price unacceptable to them. They are on a relay fast for the last 12 days demanding the government to pay compensation according to Land Acquisition Act, 2013, instead of a government order. “The government is offering between Rs. 3.2 lakh and Rs. 5.6 lakh an acre under GO 123 whereas our land cost more than Rs. 28 lakh per acre if they were located by the highway. How can we sell our land for a throw away price?” asks Ranga Reddy of Mamdgi village in Nyalakal mandal, bordering Karnataka. He was one of those at the hunger strike camp.
The government has already acquired about 3,000 acres, but the farmers are protesting over the compensation paid to them.
Expressing solidarity with their agitation, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) State secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram said it was a struggle for survival by farmers as they had no other means of livelihood except farming.
“It is the question of their survival and had no political overtones. The government’s threat that the farmers will get less compensation under the Act was not right. If the government agreed to go by the Act, the means to achieve the right compensation will fall in place,” said Mr. Veerabhadram. He wondered about the fate of the farmers if they were paid compensation by the government order.
Quoting a Minister, Mr. Veerabhadram said that the government was against implementing the Act for Mallannasagar as it would cost an additional Rs. 5,000 crore. He assured farmers that their lands could not be acquired for industries under the Act if they yielded two crops a year.
Mr. Veerabhadram also cautioned the officers not to risk facing prosecution in future like some of them who suffered during the term of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy by going against the law to please their political bosses.
