SIDDIPET: Vemulaghat farmers under the Mallanna Sagar reservoir project have made it clear that their agitation will continue till the government meets their demands.
They have been on protest and hunger strike for the past two years demanding their rehabilitation and resettlement under Land Acquisition Act-2013 for the lands the government was acquiring from them to build the project. The government has been accused of pressurising the farmers by various means and registered cases against them but they didn’t buckle.
As many as 14 villages face submergence if the Mallanna Sagar reservoir is built but only Vemulaghat has resisted the government. Its people even challenged the GO No 123 in court and later challenged all the moves of the government in the court. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao invited them to his farm house and held discussions but there was no result as farmers made it clear that the land acquisition should be made under the Land Act 2013.
Farmers who did not register their lands for the government gathered at Vemulaghat to mark the completion of two years of their protest. They reviewed the developments of past two years and reached the hunger strike camp. They sounded confident that they would win in the court finally. They made it clear that they would not wilt under the pressure of government.