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TJAC fails to cross KCR’s fortress
Though the Gajwel police had given permission for the yatra a couple of days ago, just a night before the scheduled programme, TJAC was barred from conducting the yatra in villages and restricted the committee from holding a public meeting in Gajwel, that too on its outskirts and not at the centre of the town as planned by TJAC initially.
The government deploys heavy police force all along, apparently to prevent Telangana Joint Action Committee’s ‘Amarula Spoorthy Yatra’ from entering irrigation project-affected villages
Gajwel: Telangana Political Joint Action Committee (TJAC) chairman Prof Kodandaram had a tough time touring villages in Mulugu and Thoguta mandals which are being acquired for construction of Mallannasagar and Kondapochammasagar, during his ‘Amarula Spoorthy Yatra’ on Sunday.
The yatra was scheduled to cover several villages in Gajwel Assembly constituency, being represented by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. Heavy police deployment not just on the Rajiv Gandhi National Highway, but also picketing in every village supposed to be visited by the professor, prevented him and TJAC activists from entering and interacting with the villagers.
Though the Gajwel police had given permission for the yatra a couple of days ago, just a night before the scheduled programme, TJAC was barred from conducting the yatra in villages and restricted the committee from holding a public meeting in Gajwel, that too on its outskirts and not at the centre of the town as planned by TJAC
initially.
Despite heavy police presence, a group of villagers from Mamidyal, Thanedarpally, Thanedarpally Thanda and Bailampur in Mulugu mandal took secret routes to reach Gajwel and interacted with Prof Kodandaram. The villagers told him that revenue officials and local Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders forcefully made them give consent for alienating their lands for construction of Kondapochammasagar reservoir with a storage capacity of 15 TMC ft.
“The officials are bluntly telling us that there would be no compensation for assigned lands, as the government had the right to take them back whenever they wanted. They also warned us that if we didn’t give our consent, during survey of lands they would show our lands 5-6 guntas less, which would be a huge loss for us,” said the farmers.
Talking to the media, Prof Kodandaram said neither the JAC members were allowed to meet the villagers, nor were the villagers allowed to go out of their villages to meet the activists.
He asked why there was a need to deploy such a massive police force when all that they were doing was giving moral support to the villagers being affected by irrigation projects.
“113 farmers committed suicide in Gajwel constituency after the formation of Telangana, but we were not allowed to visit the villages. In fact, the police changed the venue for our public meeting. We were not allowed to go off the highway,” he said.
