Hyderabad: The legal fight of 60 senior citizens, who alienated their lands for the construction of Mallanna Sagar Reservoir under the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), has finally borne fruit. After almost a decade-long fight, the state government finally compensated them as per the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act.
The move came just the night before Telangana Finance Secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania was supposed to appear before a Telangana High Court bench on Wednesday, April 15.
Advocate Chaparala Ravi, representing the land oustees, had filed a petition with the High Court to make Sultania appear in person before the court on Wednesday after the bench had reserved its verdict on the contempt of court with regard to the case.
The senior citizens received the rehabilitation and resettlement benefits under the 2013 Act on Tuesday midnight.
“This is one of the rare cases where the most marginalised sections fought for the rightful compensation in land acquisition. I appreciate the resilience shown by the victims for so long, and Hayatuddin for standing with the victims,” said Donthi Narasimha Reddy, member of Telangana Rythu Commission, who is also a policy expert.
Hayatuddin, a resident of Vemulaghat village of Thoguta mandal in Siddipet district, was one of the several farmers who braved the police firing and faced lathi-charge during the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, when they protested for almost a year against the forceful land acquisition for the construction of the Mallanna Sagar reservoir.
The entire village, along with several villages in the area, were wiped out to facilitate the construction of the reservoir. Senior citizens were the ones who suffered the most.
Malla Reddy, 70, a resident of Vemulaghat, had arranged his own pyre using wooden logs from his demolished house and set himself on fire in the early hours of June 18, 2021.
The Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) G Bal Reddy had said at the time that Malla Reddy was compensated and a 2BHK house was allotted to him, apart from giving him Rs 7.5 lakh. However, Malla Reddy lived with his brother-in-law after his wife’s death few months before his death. Even his two daughters and their husbands had passed away, leaving him alone.
According to the MRO, Bal Reddy was not staying in the 2BHK house allotted to him.
Bacchani Narasaiah, 72, a resident of Pallepahad village, had hanged himself after the Thoguta MRO had announced the land acquisition for the Mallannasagar reservoir in July 2016. His situation was similar.
Narasaiah, who had no children, had adopted his brother’s daughter and was living with his wife, Bojjavva, in a small house, owning just half an acre land which was to go under submergence for the project.
Worried about who would take care of him, like many other senior citizens in the village, he set took his own life.
These were the harsh realities in Telangana, socially and politically, which still resonate in the hills of Vemulaghat, where once stood a fully thriving village with a minor irrigation system to enable two crops a year, before 14 villages were acquired to build around 50 TMC reservoir under the Kaleshwaram project.
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