CPI wants mandal treated as unit for compensation

Eluru: Dega Prabhakar, secretary of CPI West Godavari Council has demanded the State Government to take mandal as a unit to implement relief and rehabilitation package of Polavaram Irrigation Project.

Addressing the media at Sphurti Bhavan here on Thursday, the CPI secretary said that the recently concluded three-day district convention passed resolutions on various issues. He demanded that the Government complete the Polavaram irrigation project by 2019 as the works now going at a snail pace.

The Government should take mandal as a unit in providing relief and rehabilitation package of Polavaram. He explained that the officials had been leaving some villages from the list now. Due to this, after the project’s completion, these villages would become island villages and many problems arise out of this.

He wanted the Government to pay the compensation for the lands taken up under Chintalapudi Lift Irrigation Scheme (CLIS) farmers on par with the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (PLIS). The farmers of West Godavari had been giving the lands for the CLIS and the water would be diverted to other districts. In view of this, the farmers should be compensated amicably. Otherwise, the CPI would take up agitation, he warned.

He demanded that the Government sanction the right on the lands to the Dalits who were cultivating 380 acres of land in Bhimole village of Gopalapuram mandal for over four decades. He pointed out that these lands had been distributed to Dalits in the village after acquiring lands under Land Ceiling Act. The government should protect the rights of the Dalits on these lands.

He also wanted the Government to take up Narsapur Port, coal mining at Chintalapudi which were assured in the Assembly. The Government should also take up the Vasistha Varadhi (Brdige across Vasistha Godavari) near Narsapuram. “If the government failed to fulfil the demands, the CPI will take up direct action on these issues,” he threatened.