Mancherial: Controversies mar land acquisition for IT hub

A group of farmers alleged that the leaders were exerting pressure on the farmers to allow the government to acquire their lands for the hub

Mancherial: The process of land acquisition for a proposed industrial and IT hub at Vempalli, Mulkalla and Pochampahad villages in Hajipur mandal has been marred by controversies.

There are allegations that the process has been started without notifications, with certain Congress leaders and officials fixing compensations on their own and forcing farmers to hand over the land to them.

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Officials had estimated that 276 acres of land was required for creating the hub at the three villages. Compensation of Rs 13.50 lakh per acre was reportedly fixed by the officials.

The process of land acquisition had allegedly begun without publishing a formal notification. Certain leaders of Congress are drawing flak for forcing farmers to give land for the facility.

A group of farmers submitted an application to Collector Kumar Deepak seeking his intervention in the issue. They alleged that the leaders were exerting pressure on the farmers to allow the government to acquire their lands for the hub. They accused the leaders of gathering signatures of the farmers to express their interest to give the lands.

The farmers urged the Collector to take action against revenue officials who attended an informal meeting held by the leaders in a function hall as part of acquiring lands for the hub. They stated that they would suffer losses if lands were acquired at low prices suggested by the Congress leaders as the assets were priced around Rs 50 lakh per acre.

They announced that they would chalk out an action plan soon.

The farmers said that Kumar Deepak assured them of taking steps to ensure justice for them. They stated that the Collector promised to convene a meeting with them soon before acquiring the lands and a proposal would be submitted to the government over the compensation.

Meanwhile, Dommati Arjun, a farmer filed a query with revenue officials under the Right to Information Act, 2005, seeking details of the hub a few weeks back. He requested the officials to disclose whether the facility would belong to the private or government. He said that the officials did not give the data so far