KAKINADA: The lives of nearly 30,000 people of 30 villages in U. Kothapalli and Thondangi mandals in East Godavari district, where the Kakinada Special Economic Zone (KSEZ) acquired land for setting up industries, have deteriorated and they are finding difficult to educate their children and conduct their marriages.
Even relatively prosperous farmers who, once upon a time, led a good life and had a good reputation, have dropped below the poverty line. “We believed Chandrababu Naidu when he said that he would give us a good future. But he belied our hopes, cheated us,” the farmers and other residents of the villages said.
Badireddy Tammanna Dora of Ravivaripadu village in U. Kothapalli mandal, whose family has 25 acres of land, said that his father had entrusted him with the responsibility of educating their family members and seeing them married. “I saw to it that my sisters and brothers got married.
But, now, we are finding it difficult to conduct the marriages of my daughters and nieces as nobody wants their sons to be part of a family whose land is under litigation in the name of KSEZ,” said Badireddy.
The family lives on 22 cents of land amidst a beautiful landscape, speckled with coconut, sapota and other trees, and pleasant weather.“Now we are in deep depression as our village may be vacated to make way for industry,” he added. Life was good earlier, he recalled, with nobody ever having to go to the police station for any reason. Now, he faces police cases.
“We can’t provide prospective grooms and brides any concrete answers about our status when we want to give our children to them. I married off three daughters of mine and want to put my son through higher education. But, I am not able to do this due to our financial crisis,” said Bandi Krishna of Mummdivarappadu village.
Not only Krishna and Badireddy, but the majority of the people in these villages is in a grave state of depression. They allege that the government cut all their facilities, such as MGNREGS, water to agricultural fields and other schemes. They said that lands adjacent to them had become the stuff of transactions to the tune of Rs 30-40 lakhs, the government being ready to pay only Rs 9 lakhs per acre. They pointed out that even a site for a house could not be found for this amount. The people requested the CM to do justice to them.
