First compensation then survey: Farmers

Khammam: Farmers living on both sides of Godavari River in Bhadrachalam and Manugur divisions have demanded the State government to finalise the compensation issue before conducting survey of their lands for the construction of bund, to protect people from back waters of Sitamma Sagar barrage in Aswapuram mandal of Kothagudem district.

The State government has proposed Sitamma Sagar barrage on River Godavari at Ammagaripalli village in Aswapuram mandal with an estimation cost of Rs 2,632 crore. According to officials, the new barrage will be constructed 200 meters down of the existing barrage in River Godavari with 14 meters height on the existing barrage.

The new barrage is to store 35 TMCs water for lifting through Sri Sitarama Lift Irrigation project for providing irrigation water and drinking water purpose in the erstwhile Khammam district. The officials have proposed about 20 kilometres length bund from the new barrage to down area for both sides of river to protect villages from back water submersion.

According to Irrigation department Superintendent Engineer A Venkata Krishna, left side bund construction will begin from Dummugudem to Subbampet village in Cherla mandal and right bund construction will begin from Ammagaripalli to Ramanujavaram in Manuguru mandal. To construct bund on both sides, the officials need about 3,584 acres of farmers. But the farmers are not willing to give their lands as most of them, who are going to lose land, are poor and have one to two acres only.

The officials have launched surveys for land acquisition works but the farmers were obstructing them and demanding them to finalise compensation first. The farmers said the government should pay as per 2103 Land Acquisition Act.

CPM district secretary AJ Ramesh alleged that the government is forcibly doing survey works without finalising the compensation.

BJP leader Yerram Raju Behra demanded that the government must pay high compensation as all farmers, who are losing lands, are small and poor.