Official team visits villages facing threat of submergence under Gandikota

Kadapa: As per the directions of the state government, a senior IAS officer and former Collector of Kadapa district T Babu Rao Naidu, another IAS officer Satish Chandra, Jammalamadugu RDO Naganna and irrigation officials visited the Obannapeta village of Kondapuram mandal, a village facing threat of submergence under Gandikota Reservoir in Kadapa district. The officials also visited other villages in the area.

The TDP government to increase the storage capacity of Gandikota Reservoir, allocated Rs 460 crores compensation for 22 submerged villages in the 1st phase fixing Rs 6.75lakhs each displaced family under R&R package and proposed to shift them to the 7 rehabilitation centres which have been arranged near the submerged villages. But there are no basic amenities at these rehabilitation centres and people from villages facing the threat of submergence have not moved to the rehabilitation centres.

On Saturday, the officials interacted with the villagers at Obannapeta and other villages. The victims complained to the officials that they are finding it difficult to move to rehabilitation centres due to lack of basic amenities. They stated that injustice was done to several genuine victims as officials adopted faulty methods in identifying the genuine evacuees.

Babu Rao Naidu said that he was well aware of the problem as he earlier worked in Kadapa district. He said government is keen on providing infrastructure facilities in rehabilitation centres and paying compensation in a transparent manner.