Nizamabad Farmers lose land for High Tension towers

​Nizamabad: Farmers in Mupkal village of Balkonda mandal in the district are a distressed lot as their lands were forcibly taken away by the State government for the construction of huge high tension towers for a power grid by the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited.

Moreover, they have not been paid any compensation in this regard. They have lost their fertile agricultural lands. Farmers losing lands for construction of projects has become a common trend in the country, more so in the States of Telangana.

Although there are several laws to protect the interests of farmers who lose lands, the government was not implementing them and was misleading the farmers by issuing GOs which put the farmers at a loss. It was not properly implementing the Electricity Act ( 2003), an Act to consolidate the laws relating to generation, transmission, distribution, trading and use of electricity.

Several huge towers were set up from Penganga on the outskirts of Maharashtra to Dichpalli in Telangana. These towers were constructed on the lands owned by farmers. Also, a huge electricity line with 765 KV capacity from Wardha in Maharasthra to Telangana was laid.

The farmers have lost nearly 400 meters of land as the distance between the two huge towers were 400 meters. However, it was not decided as to who much compensation is to paid to the farmers. After commencing the construction works, some of the staff went to the farmers and forcibly took their signatures that they were giving up their lands for the power grid.

Some of the aggrieved farmers said that the notice was in English and they could not understand it. They were coerced to sign it, they lamented.

Speaking to The Hans India here on Wednesday, Narasaiah, a farmer bemoaned that his agricultural land was destroyed as large number of lorries and tractors traversed on his land several times using heavy machinery, sand and concrete were used on his land.

Thus, his fertile land was destroyed, he lamented. Farmers have incurred heavy losses on soya, maize, turmeric, sugarcane and paddy crops whn the construction works were started, he added.

Farmers said that the compensation of Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 was inadequate and they had to pay from their pockets to remove the concrete stones from their lands as the officials refused to pay them any money. Farmers who had lands near the national highway was paid Rs 4.50 lakh.

In the Balkonda mandal, 50 huge towers have come up and the4 farmers have lost huge tracts of lands without compensation. The farmers expressed anguish over the issue and hoped that the government would come to their rescue and bail them out.