SIDDIPET: Even as the state government’s big-ticket irrigation project — Mallanna Sagar — is inching towards completion, unrest too is building up in equal measure. What began as an argument between people of Etigadda Kistapur, workers of the contracting agency and the police over the closure of a road on Thursday evening evolved into a full-blown protest on Friday with BJP workers joining the agitation.
The workers were closing the road as part of works to complete the Mallanna Sagar Reservoir by June end.
Sensing that there would be more trouble on Friday when the BJP issued a Chalo Mallanna Sagar call, police barricaded Etigadda Kistapur, preventing outsiders from entering it. A posse of policemen was posted in the village and all roads leading to it were closed.
When Dubbaka MLA M Raghunandan Rao, who was leading BJP workers, tried to reach Etigadda Kistapur, the police stopped him in his tracks at Venkataraopet, about 2 km away.
Locals who joined Raghunandan argued with the police that the road out of their village was being closed forcibly with an intent to evacuate them since it would be submerged when the reservoir is in place. Villagers have refused to move out saying that the compensation offered is meagre. They insist that the government cannot close the road till compensation issue is settled.
Raghunandan, who flew into a rage after the police stopped him and his party workers, had a heated argument with them as to how they could stop him from visiting the village.
The police took shelter under a court order, which according to them, had prevented people from going near the Mallanna Sagar Project.
But the MLA insisted that police show him the order copy. The police who sensed that the situation was getting out of control, arrested him and others and took them to Cheriyal police station in Siddipet district.
Authorities trying to scare us: Villagers
“How can the police stop me from visiting a village? I am an MLA. What kind of democracy is this?” he asked, while he was being taken to Cheriyal police station.
Meanwhile, residents of Pallepahad, a village set to be submerged in the Mallanna Sagar project, expressed concern over authorities releasing water into the reservoir deliberately from Mallanna Sagar Surge Pool to frighten them, and demanded that the water be stopped immediately.
Officials, however, maintained that they were pumping water from the surge pool only to see that it goes into the pits dug on the reservoir bed. Officials also said they had released only 0.1 TMCFT of water till Friday morning.