PEDDAPALLI: The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIS), while proving to be a boon for the State, has become a bane for areas under Manthani Assembly constituency due to frequent submerging. The backwater area of this constituency consisting of the Sundilla, Annaram and Medigadda barrages are the worst-hit because farmers haven’t been able to cultivate their fields and have been forced to migrate to other areas.
This ordeal has been going on for the past three years where around 450 acres of land has been submerged. The villages of Arenda and Mallaram were not acquired under the KLIS and were hence offered temporary compensation amounting to Rs 20,000 per acre per year, which was later stopped.
“There is no way to survive as we had three acres of land that got submerged. Buried in debts, we had to migrate,” laments Sunkari Pullaiah from Mallaram village.Similarly, farmers in Sundilla, Medigadda barrages too face serious problems. They’ve now turned to the government seeking compensation for their lands.