Budavarampet villagers protest SCCL’s demolition of houses in Peddapalli

Residents of Budavarampet village in Ramagiri mandal staged a protest against the demolition of houses by Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), alleging that the action was taken without prior notice.

Peddapalli: Residents of Budavarampet village in Ramagiri mandal staged a protest against the demolition of houses by the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), alleging that the action was taken without issuing prior notice.

As part of the expansion of Opencast-2 coal mine in the Ramagundam-III area, the Singareni management acquired a portion of the village and initiated the land acquisition process on Tuesday.

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While SCCL officials assigned numbers to old houses, they reportedly refused to acquire newly constructed houses. The local residents demanded that the management acquire the entire village, failing which they warned they would not allow the company to proceed with the opencast project expansion works.

When Singareni began demolishing houses as part of the land acquisition process on Tuesday, villagers staged a dharna on the Peddapalli–Manthani main road, forcing vehicular traffic to come to a halt on either side.

They found fault with the officials for demolishing houses without giving prior intimation. The demolition was taken up when Collector Koya Sree Harsha, along with revenue and other officials, was touring Ramagiri mandal.

The protesters demanded that the Collector visit the spot and resolve their issue. As they refused to withdraw the protest, Godavarikhani ACP M Ramesh visited the site and persuaded them to call off the agitation by assuring that the issue would be brought to the notice of the concerned officials.