Stop Forced Land Acquisition: Congress To Governor

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy along with other leaders of his Party submitted a memorandum to Governor E S L Narasimhan on Monday against the implementation of GO 123 for land acquisition for the various irrigation projects being undertaken by the Telangana government.

Reddy, in his message to the Governor, wrote, "The government is destroying the livelihoods of the farmers, land tenants, agriculture labourers and artisans, and suppressing their fundamental rights. The State government, which is supposed to be the custodian of the rights of its people, has become the violator."

The TPCC chief alleged that the State government was acquiring lakhs of acres of land in the name of irrigation projects displacing lakhs of villagers in the process.

"While development is necessary, it is the responsibility of the government to protect the basic rights of the evacuees. It ought to implement the Retrospective Effect Clause For Transition Of Land Acquisition (RECTLA) Act, 2013, also known as the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, as the modified GO 123 still lacks any details on the issue of social security or resettlement and rehabilitation of the oustees," he wrote.

"We request you to direct the State government to implement the Land Acquisition Act so that land owners, tenants, workers and landless labourers will get social security benefits along with rehab and resettlement options," he urged.

He also accused the government of using coercive and unconstitutional methods against the farmers. In the villages that were likely to be submerged under the proposed Mallanna Sagar project, the State government had unleashed its police forces, compelling the villagers to give up their lands. He pointed out the incident wherein the farmers who had protested against the reservoir project in Medak on July 24 were allegedly baton-charged by the cops.

"As many 163 villagers, including women, children and senior citizens, were injured in the incident. No action was taken against DSP Sridhar Goud, who had ordered his squad to open fire at the farmers to 'scare' them off. Everything from bullets to tear-gas shells was used. Let us remind you that this is the same DSP who was spared by his department in the suicide of Kuknoorpally Sub-Inspector Ramakrishna Reddy, despite being incriminated in Reddy's suicide note," he alleged, and likened the situation to that of Jammu & Kashmir.

Reddy requested the Governor to direct the government to lift the curfew and withdraw all relevant cases against the villagers.

The TPCC delegation comprised of the Leader Of Opposition in the Telangana State Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, ex-TPCC chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah, ex-Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha, Congress MLA T Jeevan Reddy, former minister Sunitha Lakshma Reddy, TPCC Vice-President Mallu Ravi and other senior leaders.