SRIKAKULAM: A day after Vamsadhara project oustees’ anger over the delay in payment of compensation amount and implementation of R&R package spilled onto the streets, the contracting companies on Monday moved their vehicles and other machinery from the project site to safety.
More than 5,000 villagers belonging to 29 villages took it upon themselves on Sunday when they obstructed the project work, ransacked office furniture and set four vehicles belonging to the construction company afire, as the deployed police remained mere bystanders.
The Soma Company, who has bagged the project contract and Patel Companny, a sub-contracting agency, moved their machinery from the project site in LN Peta and Hiramandalam mandals to Sarubujjili mandal. The company suspended the works being undertaken at Hiramandalam temporarily and its staffers checked out from the temporary camps built at the project sites.
The company officials put the loss incurred by the damage of properties at `5 crore, quoting the preliminary estimate. “The villagers ransacked the computer laboratory and set the machinery afire at all three camps at Moduvalasa, Pedda Kollivalasa and Barrage Centre.
A generator, loaders, rollers, concrete pumps, two SUVs, four excavators, furniture and eight two wheelers of company employees were gutted, apart from official records, including mining slips worth `25 lakh,” said Jitendhra Rao, a staffer of Soma Company.
Meanwhile, collector P Lakshmi Narasimham convened an interim meeting with tehsildars, RDOs, SDCs and police officials. As many as 19 committees have been formed to conduct a survey to list out the problems being faced by the oustees. The teams comprising deputy collectors, tehsildars, Vamsadhara project engineers and surveyors will complete the works in 10 days.