We want to see water in Mallannasagar by 2018.

Of late, Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao is visiting his native Medak district more than his office in the State Secretariat. He is eager to settle the issue of land acquisition for the Mallannasagar project as soon as possible.

“We want to see water in the reservoir by 2018,” he told The Hindu before rushing to Erravalli recently to hold discussions with the villagers whose lands were sought to be acquired. He had embarked upon a similar exercise on Wednesday to convince the residents of Pallepahad to part with their land for the project.

The Rs. 9,000-crore Mallannasagar project was envisaged to irrigate up to 15 lakh acres of land in Medak, Nalgonda and Nizamabad districts besides ensuring round-the-clock water supply to industries and providing drinking water to Hyderabad.

The 50 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) capacity reservoir, which is also aimed at feeding Nizamsagar and Singur reservoirs, involves submergence of 16,000 acres of land and 2,700 houses belonging to eight villages and a hamlet in Medak district.

“Out of the eight villages, the people of six villages have so far consented to give their land for the project in accordance to the provisions of the GO (Government Order) 123. We are holding discussions with the people of the other two villages and a hamlet in this regard. We are confident of convincing them. If not, we will invoke the Land Acquisition Act (Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, Resettlement Act, 2013) to acquire their lands,” the Minister said.

According to Mr. Rao, out of the 16,000 acres which would be submerged, 7,078 acres are assigned lands, 7, 613 acres are patta lands and 1,434 acres are unassigned government land. The assignees of government land, who otherwise will not be able to sell the land, are too happy to give the land and 3,100 acres of patta lands have already been registered for the project. The Minister explained that GO 123 was issued as the Land Acquisition Act 2013 involved an elaborate and time-consuming process. This apart, he felt, the GO 123 was beneficial to the land oustees and even the landless persons who would be displaced as it provided for construction of two-bedroom houses for them and establishment of model villages with roads, school, temple, an Anganwadi and a graveyard apart from other amenities at the place of their choice. The government had identified 15 large land parcels to choose from for establishing the model villages. The displaced families would also be provided fishing rights over the reservoir “which itself is expected to secure an income of Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh a year for each household.”

“The tagline of our fight for statehood was Neeru, Nidhulu, Niyamakalu (water, financial resources and appointments). So, we are under compulsion to construct projects,” he said emphasising why the State Government wanted to expedite execution of projects. He dismissed the allegations of the opposition parties that the government was forcefully acquiring land from the farmers. He also reiterated that the Opposition parties were adopting double standards with regard to acquisition of land for projects.

THE HINDU