MEDAK: The statement of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao that land rates are rising sharply due to irrigation projects and other development works undertaken in Telangana and that the price of land in any corner of the State is at least Rs 25 lakh per acre has come as a boon for oustees of various projects in their struggle for a fair compensation.
Referring to the Chief Minister’s remarks, oustees are demanding at least Rs 25 lakh per acre for handing over their lands to the officials.In some parts of Sangareddy district, the farmers are pointing out that this would be the second time they would be displaced and hence their compensation should be more. Already, many irrigation projects like Ranganayaka Sagar, Mallannasagar and Kondapochamma have been completed in the erstwhile Medak district and canals are required to be built to divert the water to various areas.
Officials are visiting the villages to acquire land required for canals, bypass roads, Regional Ring Road and others, for which farmers are not agreeing to give up their lands. Farmers recently stormed the Ramayampet tahsildar’s office complaining that they have already lost land for the highway they built from Hyderabad to Nizamabad and are now losing land for the road from Sangareddy to Elkaturti in Warangal district.
They said that the government, which wants to acquire the land that provides them subsistence and is offering them nominal compensation as a result, and demand instead of monetary compensation, they should be given land for their land.
Recently, farmers from Ramayampet and Akkannapet villages surrounded the Ramayampet tahsildar’s office and made it clear that they did not want to give up their lands. They have made it clear that it is not proper for the authorities to say that they would give only Rs 10 lakh per acre as compensation when the price in the open market is between Rs 70 lakh and Rs 1 crore per acre. Oustees said that out of a total of 26 houses in Hanuman Colony in Tonigandla village in Ramayampeta mandal, 17 were marked for demolition for the bypass road.
‘Acquire our lands through auction’
A farmer from Sangareddy area commented that the government, which owns thousands of crores of rupees by auctioning land in the suburbs of Hyderabad, should also show interest to acquire their land through auction. He said the government is setting a price on their land to sell it to others and another price for land that it buys from farmers was nothing but unfair.