Land acquisition: Telangana offers to pay compensation as per Central Act

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has finally backed down in the face of protests against land acquisition for the Mallannasagar project in Chief Minister’s home district Medak.

Instead of the state government’s GO 123, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday offered to pay compensation as per the Centre’s Land Acquisition Act, 2013. He gave the choice to farmers to opt for either the Central law or the state government’s land acquisition policy.

Interestingly, the decision was announced on the day when Telangana Telugu Desam working president and MLA A. Revanth Reddy sat on a 48-hour deeksha against the GO 123 at Etigadda Kistapur, the village which faces total submergence on account of the project.

The TS government had come out with its own land acquisition policy in the form of GO 123 to acquire lands for irrigation projects on the ground that the Centre’s Act in this regard was cumbersome and expensive, besides time-consuming, resulting in unnecessary delays in execution of projects.

However, the GO has been facing stiff resistance from farmers and land owners, who had been agitating for over three months, demanding implementation of the Central Act. The CM held an emergency meeting on Saturday.