SIDDIPET: Oustees of the Gouravelli reservoir are criticising the behaviour of the police against the persons displaced due to different irrigation projects in the district. Apart from the oustees of the Ranganayak Sagar project, the police treatment against the oustees of the Mallannasagar, Kondapochamma and Gouravelli projects has caused immense mental stress to the affected people, they alleged.
The police should be sympathetic towards the cause of the oustees, who have had to lose their land and are moving to other villages, they added. It was cruel on the part of police to use force against the people demanding the compensation that they deserve, they mentioned.
“The officials, who should us some sympathy, are seeing us as their enemy,” the oustees said. In a counter to Finance Minister T Harish Rao’s statement on Wednesday where he said that no one would be removed from their house or land by the use of force, the oustees mentioned the example of Bailampur villagers who were pressurised into giving up their lands.
In June 2020, tension prevailed at Bailampur, which is one of the four villages that submerged due to the Kondapochamma reservoir, as the residents approached the court seeking compensation from the government. As the residents refused to vacate, hundreds of police personnel along with DCM vehicles surrounded the villages.
The Gouravelli project oustees said the police forcibly removed people from their houses and packed them into the vans going to Tunikibollara, the resettlement village. In order to exert more pressure, the officials also cut off power supply, they aggrieved villagers alleged.
DGP directed to inquire into oustees’ allegations
The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) on Tuesday directed Telangana DGP to conduct an inquiry into the alleged high-handedness of TRS workers and police against Gouravelli project oustees. The SHRC further directed that the inquiry be conducted by an officer ranking not less than of Commissioner of Police, and an impartial report be filed before it.