Date:17/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/17/stories/2008101753660300.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Polavaram: tribals take out rally

Staff Reporter

Participants in the agitation demand land for land as compensation

Slogans raised against ‘inadequate compensation’
Tribals say they will not leave their place

BHADRACHALAM: Tribal communities facing the risk of submergence under the Polavaram project took out a rally in Velerpadu village protesting against displacement and what they called the poor implementation of the rehabilitation package. The CPI-ML (New Democracy), which organised the rally termed Polavaram a ‘project sans the consent of the people’.

The protesters marched thorough the streets of the mandal headquarters centre raising slogans against ‘inadequate compensation’. They said the consent of the people, particularly the affected communities, was much more important than the consent of the government agencies and courts for the implementation of the project. They made it clear that no tribal family would leave the place.

Houses sought

The protesters demanded land for land as compensation. Every displaced family should be given land in the command area of the new project or in the command area of any other project in the region. The assigned land in the possession of the dalits and the poor should also be considered for compensation on the same terms. The displaced families must be given constructed houses at a place of their choice. The Yellandu MLA and New Democracy leader said that over two lakh persons would be displaced in 300 villages. There was no scientific approach in the implementation of the rehabilitation package. P. Ranga Rao, district secretary of the party, said that the displacement would be a major tragedy in the lives of the tribal communities. K. Ranga Reddy, State leader of the AIKMS, said many of the tribal families had no pattas for the land in their occupation.