Nizamabad: Police arrest villagers protesting against forced land acquisition

Nizamabad: Police on Thursday arrested many protesters as the residents of Byrapur village who have been agitating against the forced acquisition of their lands by the government for the construction of Manchimppa Reservoir, intensified the protest when officials visited to construct pump house there.

The agitated evacuees obstructed the Gadkol pump house construction works related to Kaleshwaram project 21 package in Byrapur village suburb under Nizamabad district on Thursday. The villagers have been holding dharna for many days against the acquisition of lands. The agitators don't want to part with their fertile land and also that the compensation that is being offered by the government is not satisfactory.A public hearing was held with resudents of submerged villagers at the Byrapur pumphouse construction site five days ago and ended in chaos with evacuees protesting.

Because of protests, the officers prepared to start the pump house works at Bhairapur under the police patrol. On Thursday, the construction works were stopped by the evacuees and police have to use force against them, Police have been making arrests of vacuees since Thursday morning.

The arrested evacuees were shifted to Mopal police station. People and farmers of submerged villages, including Manchippa, are protesting against the arrests.

Police have arrested Srinivas, Rajesh, Satyanarayana, Ishwar Singh and Jalender, leaders of the Kaleswaram submerged victims' protection committee, on Thursday morning.

Residents of Manchippa Reservoir submerged villages have been warned that construction work will continue until the Manchippa project redesign is canceled. Police were heavily deployed in Manchippa and Bairpur villages. At one point, protesters hurled stones at police.

Additional Collector Chandrasekhar and Additional CP Vineet are holding talks with the people who arrived at the dharna camp.

They are demanding the immediate release of members of the submerged villages conservation committee who have been arrested since Wednesday night. The affected villagers say that the agitation will not stop till district Collector Narayana Reddy arrives.