HYDERABAD: Residents of Vasalamarri in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district are feeling a sense of insecurity in the event of the TRS not coming to power in the State in the next Assembly elections. "What will our fate be, if the TRS fails to retain power in the State?"
This is the question raised by some of them, albeit in a subtle way when officials visited the village on Wednesday to demolish the old houses and construct new ones for them. Tension prevailed in the meeting conducted by District Collector Pamela Satpathy along with other officials with residents shooting questions at them.
Vasalamarri was adopted by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. During his visit to the village in August 2021, he said he would have dilapidated houses demolished and new houses constructed. "The entire village will be demolished for renovation," Rao had said at that time.
The district officials, on Wednesday convened a meeting with the villagers to inform them of their intention to construct new houses. However, some villagers felt that the construction of their houses may not be over before the next elections which are about one and a half years away.
They made an oblique reference to the possibility of the TRS not retaining power and in such an event, what would be their fate. The Collector left the meeting midway.
When contacted, Vasalamarri Sarpanch P Anjaneyulu said that some of the villagers expressed concern over the land they were losing due to the reconstruction of the village. The plan was to construct houses to villages on 200 sq yards for each beneficiary.
Some villagers said that they had over 200 sq yards of housing land and demanded compensation for the portion of the land they would lose, the Sarpanch said.
"The Collector left the meeting midway, as she had another meeting to attend to. Finally, all the villagers agreed for the reconstruction of houses to all the 550 families. No villager expressed doubts over TRS not being able to retain power in the next elections," Anjaneyulu said.
The Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri Collector was not available for comments.