Opposition’s protest against the Telangana Government’s move to acquire land for the Mallanna Sagar dam in Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s home district Medak district has further intensified with the Telangana TDP president A Revanth Reddy launching two day hunger strike on Saturday.
Revanth Reddy, who sat on the fast at Etigadda Kistapur village, said that the struggle would continue till justice was done to the thousands of farmers.
He lashed out at the Chief Minister for using the brute police force to suppress the agitation by the farmers. “The policemen are threatening the farmers to sign the papers and accept whatever compensation is paid to them”, he said adding that he will be the first person to face the stick and the bullet of the police in this struggle.
He demanded that instead of making empty promises the Chief Minister should pay the compensation to the farmers.
Meanwhile concerned over the spreading protests in the districts the Chief Minister today held a meeting with Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao and top officials of the department to discuss the rehabilitation package for the oustees of the project.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to pay compensation to the affected farmers as per their wishes. “The Government is willing to pay the compensation either under the land acquisition act 2013 or the GO 123 as per the wishes of the farmers,” he said.
The cause of the farmers facing eviction because of the Mallanna Sagar dam was evoking support from all the major opposition parties Congress, BJP, TDP and the left leaving the government worried about its impact.
The sustained agitation by the people of Etigadda Kistapur village has also inspired the people affected by other projects like Ghanapur dam and National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (Nimz) in other parts of Medak district to take the path of agitation seeking better compensation.
The state government has issued GO 123 to acquire 60000 acres for the three projects but the affected people were demanding higher compensation under the Central land Acquisition Act 2013.
Mallanna Sagar envisages irrigating 10 to 12 lakh acres of land in three districts of Medak, Nalgonda and Nizamabad at cost of Rs 9800 crores.
The project, which will submerge 22000 acres of land, falls in the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's own assembly constituency. People in the 14 affected villages were opposing the project on various grounds. While some were opposed to the project outright as it will deprive them of their ancestral lands, the others want better compensation to hand over their lands.
The opposition parties, which so far could not find their feet against the TRS, have now found a potent issue to mobilise the people against the TRS government in the Chief Minister's own district.