ONGOLE: In a relief to the district administration, villagers of Karlapalem, Mondivaripalem and Avulavaripalem of Salipeta and Raavooru panchayats in Gudlur mandal have agreed to give their lands for the first phase of the proposed Ramayapatnam port project. Nearly 650 acres of land was identified in the said villages for the first phase of the project.
Kandukur MLA M Mahidhar Reddy held discussions with the farmers and villagers, who agreed for the compensation amount proposed by the government in lieu of their lands. The villagers agreed to part with their lands for Rs 10 lakh (agriculture lands) per acre and Rs 15 lakh (aquaculture lands) per acre. Following which, the revenue department started land acquisition from Monday.
Earlier, District Collector Pola Bhaskar, Kandukur Sub-Collector Bhargava Teja, Maritime Board Director Venkateswara Reddy and other officials met the farmers of the three Ramayapatnam port project affected villages to discuss the land acquisition process.
In this connection, the villagers demanded Rs 25 lakh per acre as compensation for their aqua ponds and Rs 15 lakh per acre for agriculture lands. But the Collector explained to them that as per the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, the government cannot pay such a huge amount for the land. After elaborate discussions, Mahidhar Reddy convinced the villagers to settle for compensation of up to Rs 15 lakh.
The Collector also announced that the three villages are going to be taken over by the government for the port project, and the villagers will get a rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) package as per the government norms. “As per the estimation, each project affected family of these three villages will get Rs 6.5 lakh and five cents house site with Rs 3 lakh financial assistance for the construction as compensation. The government will provide employment opportunities to 75 per cent of the project-affected families,” the Collector assured.