Strongly condemning lathicharge on farmers of Kistapur, Leader of Opposition in Telangana State Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Sunday warned the TRS Government of mass agitation if it forcibly acquires land from farmers in the name of irrigation projects.
Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan here, Shabbir Ali alleged that the State Government was using coercive methods to collect consent letters from farmers to acquire land for Mallanna Sagar reservoir in Medak district. He said that the State Government was not willing to pay adequate compensation to the farmers as prescribed by the Land Acquisition Act 2013. He alleged that the TRS Government has re-designed the Mallanna Sagar reservoir by increasing its capacity from 1.5 TMC to 50 TMC without calculating the economical impact in terms of payment of compensation. Now it wants farmers to settle for peanuts while denying them the deserved and promised benefits under the Compensation Act.
Shabbir Ali said that the land which state government proposes to acquire was fertile land which irrigate two crops every year. He said that the State Government has replaced the GO. MS. No. 214 with GO. MS. 123 only to deny the farmers adequate compensation. He said it was wrong on the part of State Government to suppress the voice of farmers by using police and lathicharge. He demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao convene a review meeting to resolve the issue and come up with clarity on rehabilitation and compensation packages.
Speaking about Palair by-elections, Shabbir Ali said it is highly condemnable that KCR’s entire cabinet, State administration and police were engaged to defeat the poor widow of Ramreddy Venkatreddy. He said that the TRS Government did not express the same zeal in dealing with drought situation or helping the distressed drought-hit farmers. But KCR made it a prestigious issue to win the Palair seat, whose term will last for only three years. He said although the result of Palair by-elections would not have any positive or negative impact on the functioning of TRS Government, the Chief Minister and his team stoop down to a very low level to win it. He said people would not tolerate such arrogance and defeat the TRS candidate. “It is a fight between a Telangana traitor Tummala Nageshwara Rao and Sucharitha Reddy, the poor widow of real Telangana hero Ramreddy Venkatreddy,” he said.
Shabbir Ali also thanked Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for accepting the request of Congress delegation to release water for Jurala and initiate the construction of Package I & II of Rajoulibanda Diversion Scheme. He said he had received a call from Karnataka Irrigation Minister M.B. Patil on Sunday morning wherein he briefed that 1 TMC of water was being released to Jurala. Further, he informed that the works on RDS were being launched on war-footing basis and he also invited the Congress leaders to attend the launching ceremony. He thanked the Karnataka Government for its quick response to the request made by Telangana Congress and hoped that this gesture would help the drought-affected farmers of Mahabubnagar district. (NSS)