Andhra Pradesh - Karimnagar   

BJP for development with a human face

Field visit: State BJP president Bandaru Dattatreya interacting with villagers opposing open cast projects by the Singareni management.

KARIMNAGAR: Vehemently opposing Open Cast Projects (OCP) in the Singareni Collieries Company limited and avoid displacement of the farmers, artisans and others, villagers poured out their woes to the BJP delegation led by its State president Bandaru Dattatreya, which visited the villageson Saturday.

The BJP had constituted a struggle committee against the OCPs under the leadership of its party leaders S. Kumar, C. Venkatanarayana Reddy and others . The BJP struggle committee team and Mr. Dattatreya visited the affected villages on Saturday to get first hand information.

The team visited Pannur rehabilitation colony, Ladnapur, Adivarampeta, Rajapur, Akkepalli, Siddapalli, Adyala villages in Kamanpur and Manthani Mutharam mandals and interacted with the farmers, artisans and womenfolk. The villagers opposed the opening up of OCPs and demanded that the government instead open more underground mines to provide employment to local youth and also protect the ecology.

The Singareni had planned to expand the OCP-2 project to excavate about 120.19 million tonnes of coal for a period of 27 years by acquiring 2,255.90 hectares of land including the forest lands. Already with the existing OCP, the villagers have lost their precious lands and the adjoining villagers were suffering from environmental problems such as depletion of ground water table, cracks to their houses due to blastings in OCPs and air and sound pollution.

The expansion of OCP-2 would also disturb ayacut under the SRSP L-6 canal and Bokkalavagu project. Talking to newsmen, Mr. Dattatreya demanded that the government convene an all-party meeting to discuss the OCPs and displacement of villagers and protection of environment. Suggesting the government to take up more underground mines to provide employment to the locals, he said that BJP is for development with a humane face.

Flaying the Singareni management for threatening the villagers of acquiring the lands with force, he said that the BJP would launch agitational programmes opposing the OCPs and protect the farmers and land oustees.

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