ONGOLE : Even as the dust was settling over the issue of compensation paid for submerged land in Dhenuvakonda village, another controversy is brewing over the rehabilitation of the affected families.

The Jain Committee, which studied the submersion problem under the Gundlakamma project in some detail, found that only 30 per cent of the families in Dhenuvakonda village live within 100 metres of Full Reservoir Level (FRL) and they need be rehabilitated. But people have been demanding that all families be rehabilitated. The TDP extended its support to the demand.

Election issue

The Congress, which had made this an issue during the mandal elections, promised to get the entire village to be considered as `submerged' and get all the families rehabilitated. So it is also extending its support now to the demand leading to a piquant situation for officials. Officials point out it will be difficult to find land to allot five cents of plot to each family in the rehabilitation colony with infrastructure like roads, drains, water and streetlights. It would only increase the cost of rehabilitation.

Attractive price

Moreover, officials fear it will drive a wedge between the truly affected families and others. While the affected families had to move to the new colony for rehabilitation, the other families will take the benefits of rehabilitation but continue to live in their old houses as they lie above the FRL.

Officials had paid an attractive price of Rs. 1.25 lakh per acre and acquired 1,280 acres in Dhenuvakonda. But they pointed out that the land would get submerged only for a period of three months in a year. It would be well nigh impossible to prevent farmers from using their lands to raise crops during the lean period.

Tough choice

So even if the demand for total rehabilitation is accepted, most of the families will live in their own houses and cultivate their own lands after selling away their house-sites in the new colony. Hence it remains to be seen if the officials will turn down the demand in the wake of the Congress and the TDP vying with each other to woo the affected villages.

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