GUNTUR: People in Bellamkonda mandal of Guntur district, whose lands will get submerged by the reservoir of Pulichintala project, on Friday came out openly against the statements of Minister for Irrigation Ponnala Lakshmaiah on compensation amount.

Secretary of the State Association of Project Oustees Tulasidas along with Communist Party of India district secretary D. Rama Devi and party leader Chalameswara Rao visited some villages on Friday to assess the ground realities, where people came in large numbers and spoke their heart out.

Gundlakamma example

The majority of people were worried over the statements made by Mr. Lakshmaiah and Minister for Cooperation Kanna Lakshmi Narayana that the quantum of compensation would be same as that paid in Nalgonda. "Same kind of compensation will be given for lands under same project, is the logic of the Ministers, which we do not agree to," said people.

They demanded higher compensation as they opined that their lands were more fertile. Mr. Tulasidas also agreed to their arguments and pointed out that in the case of the Gundlakamma project in Prakasam district three different kinds of compensation amounts were fixed for different crops, though of a single owner.

The team toured Emmajigudem, Chityala Thanda, Chityala, Gollapeta and Pulichinta villages that would get submerged once the Pulichintala project got completed. People in these villages spoke of compensation for endowment lands, for which the Government was expressing inability, they pointed out.

The team members asked the Government to pay compensation to people tilling the endowment lands as they had been paying lease amount to the Government and depended on that for their livelihood. The team also found fault with the Government for not giving pattas to the lands people were tilling and now that they were losing the land, they should be given compensation, they added.

People also pointed out that household survey had many mistakes in Chityala and Gollapeta villages, where a house with two rooms was shown as one-room house and in some three families residing in a house were shown as one family, which needed to be corrected.

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