SIDDIPET: Oustees of Mallannasagar project are facing a dilemma. The oustees of 14 submergence villages have been shifted to Relief & Rehabilitation (R&R) colonies but with local body elections appearing on the horizon they want to be identified as per their original villages and they should be given gram panchayat status.
The people of all the 14 villages do not want to be merged with Gajwel municipality which, they say, would not only make them lose their identity but also rob them of the opportunity of contesting in gram panchayat elections.
Though their original villages do not exist anymore as they went under the Mallannasagar project, they want to be grouped and be recognised as residents of their original villages. They want their area in R&R colonies where they are living, to be named after their original villages that no longer exist.
Former sarpanch Pratap Reddy of Etigadda Kishtapuram village, a submergence village, expressed concern that if their colonies are merged into Gajwel municipality, there is a risk of their property taxes going up several folds.
He says that if their habitations in R&R colonies are recognised as villages with names of the villages that went underwater, obtaining clearances and permission for any construction would be easier and less expensive.
The oustees recall the previous government promising them that the R&R colonies, in which they are living, would be identified as the villages that went under the water at least for 10 years.
The R& R colonies, comprising double-bedroom houses, have been built in an area of 600 acres in Mutrajpally in Gajwel constituency.
As per the promise made by the previous government, the oustees want their colonies to be identified as their original villages and that elections be held for them along with other villages in the state.
Gajwel municipality has 20 wards and has a population of around 50,000 people. More than 15,000 oustees have been living in R&R colonies since 2020-21. Many oustees of Vemulaghat, Pallepahad, Etigadda Kishtapuram, Bailampur, Lakshmapur, Erravalli, and Rampur villages live in these colonies.
Mallannasagar submergence villages are mostly from Dubbaka constituency and after shifting them to R&R colonies, officials identified them as Gajwel voters. The people and public representatives of submergence villages are demanding that the government has not given them full compensation and they are still facing difficulties. They said in such a situation it is not appropriate for the government to erase the identity of their village. They are requesting the government not to merge their villages into Gajwel.