Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday directed that the resettlement and rehabilitation of people displaced by the Mallannasagar reservoir be taken up on a war footing.
Accordingly, officers at the ground level began the distribution of compensation to 800 displaced persons in Singaram and Rampur villages on Friday. In a related development, Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi cancelled his US tour.
The Chief Minister held a review of the situation with senior officials, goaded by the orders of the Telangana High Court that no person shall be displaced from their land and houses which were acquired for the Mallannasagar till they have been rehabilitated and resettled under the law by May 15.
According to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), during the review Mr Rao said, "It is unfortunate that despite so much being done circumstances are leading to court's interference. This is an unpleasant thing. In the entire process payment of only a small amount of compensation is left. Taking advantage of this, a few individuals and anti-progressive elements are making attempts to stall the project."
He said the Kaleshwaram project will provide water to over 40 lakh acres at an estimated cost of Rs 1 lakh crore.
"As part of this we are constructing the Mallannasagar reservoir with a capacity of 50 tmc ft. Mallannasagar is like the heart of the Kaleshwaram project. During the process of constructing such a huge reservoir, some people lost their land and houses. On this issue the government is taking full care with sympathy and on humanitarian grounds."
Maintaining that all the compensation to the displaced persons has been almost paid, he directed officers to complete the payment that remains and submit a report to the High Court before May 11.
He instructed the Chief Secretary to personally monitor and supervise the process of paying compensation to the displaced persons.
He entrusted the responsibilities of monitoring the distribution and compensation payment at the field level to CMO secretary Smita Sabharwal.
The Chief Minister told the officials to organise village-wise camps for the payment of compensation by nominating special officers for each village.
The CMO has claimed that Rs 800 crore has been spent towards compensation and rehabilitation of the displaced persons and the pending compensation will be paid soon. The CMO also claims that the state government has provided the best rehabilitation package to the displaced persons who have lost agriculture lands, wells, bore wells, trees, orchards and pipelines.
The CMO said that the Centre's Land Acquisition Act requires provision of a house under Indira Awas Yojana of 60 square yards costing Rs 1.25 lakh to each displaced family, but the state government has sanctioned four times more than that for Mallannasagar oustees. A two bedroom house of 560 square yards plinth area costing Rs 5.04 lakh is being given to each displaced family.
The government is to pay Rs 1,600 per square yard of the house to the displaced person. As per the package, children who are unmarried and above 18 years of age will also get `5 lakh assistance and a house site of 250 square yard.
Each family will get Rs 7.5 lakh; if there are two major children it will be Rs 10 lakh. These families will also get three plots equivalent to 750 square yards besides compensation for house and house sites as per the area.
