Displaced farmers to seek legal remedy to get back their lands

Karimnagar Gas Power Project

Nedunur (Karimnagar): The evacuees of the Karimnagar Gas Power Project are toying with the idea of approaching the court to get their lands back, since the government has shelved the project due to non-allocation of gas.

Farmers, who already started cultivating their lands, are planning to file a petition in the court requesting it to direct the State government to return back their land documents that were taken from them as part of land acquisition process.

Though the farmers were of the opinion that they have a right to occupy their lands as the government failed to utilise them even after five years of acquisition, legal experts made it clear to them that they do not enjoy any such rights.

Speaking to The Hans India, N Chandra Reddy, a resident of Nedunur, lamented they had sacrificed fertile lands for setting up a gas power plant but the government failed to start the construction of the plant even after eight years of land acquisition.

All those farmers, who lost their lands, are considering the idea of approaching the court to get their lands back, said Chandra Reddy, who lost one and half acre land in the project. Another farmer Sampath, who gave up 12 acres of land for the gas plant, said that he started cultivating five acres of the land from this kharif season.

“It is my land and I am cultivating it. Why should I keep quite when the government is not ready to utilise it. Let the government come forward and start the construction work. We are ready to vacate at any time”, he stated.

Though the project was scheduled to be completed by 2013, it was shelved due to non-allocation of gas. The gas was proposed to be diverted from a pipeline from Godavari-Krishna basin to Gujarat State and then the Andhra Pradesh government also entered into an understanding with the Reliance Company in 2007, but in vain.

Last year, the government had considered the idea of converting the gas plant into a thermal power plant but had to kept away the proposal due to lack of sufficient land. When contacted, Finance and Civil Supplies Minister Eatala Rajender said that there was no progress in the construction activities of the gas plant due non-availability of sufficient lands to convert it into a thermal plant.

In order to construct a 2,100 MW (3x700) gas-based power plant near Nedunur, about 25 km away from the district headquarters, the State government acquired 432 acres of land in Laxmidevanpalli and Gollapalli villages of Nedunur gram panchayat and Nedunur of Thimmapur mandal in 2008. The land was acquired by paying a sum of Rs 2.80 lakh per acre.

The then Chief Minister, K Rosaiah, had laid the foundation stone for phase-I (700 MW) of three gas plant units and unveiled a pylon near Nedunur on February 14, 2010. It was estimated that Rs 2,500 crore worth power plant was required to produce 9.7 million metric standard cubic metre (MMSCM) of gas per day.

APGENCO had proposed to produce power by using Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) and the State government gave permission to divert the gas by laying a pipeline from Shamirpet.

Executive Engineer Anjaiah, who earlier worked as the in-charge for the power plant, said the project was stalled due to non-allocation of gas. When asked about the proposal to establish solar power plant, he said that the state-level officials were dealing the issue.