Visakhapatnam: Condemning the forcible eviction of farmers from their farm lands for Vamsadhara project in Srikakulam district, leaders and activists of Human Right Forum (HRF) on Monday demanded the district collector to stop the move. They also demanded payment of compensation and rehabilitation as per the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act.
In his representation to the district collector of Srikakulam, the vice-president of HRF (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) K.V. Jagannadha Rao pointed out that the government wanted to acquire the land for the construction of the Hiramandalam reservoir under the Vamsadhara Project Scheme Phase-II of Stage II. The construction of the reservoir will lead to the submergence of 20 villages while about 14 villages will be partly submerged. In the years 2007-2008, the affected farmers of these villages received about Rs 1.2 lakh per acre for wet land and about Rs 88,000 per acre for dry lands.
The affected farmers at that time were told that they would be given five cents of land each for construction of houses but only few of them, in reality, received the land. Mr Rao said the affected farmers received only compensation for the lands and the houses and that too as per the earlier Land Acquisition law. It needs to be noted that the possession of land was not taken by the government.
“The farmers continued to cultivate these lands. They availed crop loans and gold loans for cultivating the lands. In some cases, your government also waived these loans fully knowing that these lands were acquired earlier,” he added “The farmers tried to ex-plain that since possession was not taken by the government after the acquisition, the government has to pass an award afresh as per the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act of 2013. The issue of lawful payment of compensation has been a bone of contention between the farmers and your office,” he said.
