Telangana Land Act may be watered down to get Godavari to Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The state government is likely to relax the social impact and food security norms of the land acquisition Act to acquire land for the project to divert 10 tmc ft of Godavari water to the city. The state government had recently approved the proposal of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board to divert Godavari water to the city by constructing a reservoir at Keshavapuram and gave administrative sanction of Rs 4,777.59 crore.

Sources said that the Water Board had written to state government requesting exemption of certain provisions of the land acquisition Act in view of public interest. The officials have estimated that the construction requires about 2,032 acres of land is required. Of this 560 acres patta is land, 278 acres assigned lands and 1,194 acres of forests. On the directions of the state government the consultant has explored various alternatives for finalisation of bund alignment to ensure that the least possible extent of patta land is required.

The Water Board told the state government that in view of the urgency involved in the matter and to process the land acquisition proposals for the project and associated components, orders were required to exempt from it from some provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Re-settlement act of the state government. An official said that the state government wold likely to accept the request.