Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], September 19 : Following the Karnataka government's decision to raise the height of Almatti Dam, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Friday criticised the decision, saying that the move could harm Telangana's share of river waters and urged the state government to take urgent legal measures.
Rao further stated that they will hold Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy accountable if they fail to act, as both Telangana and Karnataka have Congress-led state governments.
Speaking to ANI, KTR said, "The Almatti Dam has been a highly emotional and contentious issue for the last several decades, since we were in united Andhra Pradesh... Since then, Telangana has been treated unfairly regarding the Krishna and Godavari rivers, which are the lifelines of Telangana. On this, the Karnataka government decided in the cabinet that they are trying to increase the height of the dam from 519 to 524 feet, and they also decided to spend Rs 70,000 crore on acquiring land totalling 1,30,000 acres."
"We have been protesting and fighting against this, and the Telangana government must respond quickly and challenge this in court without delay. If they fail to act, and since there is a Congress government in both Telangana and Karnataka, we demand explanations from Rahul Gandhi and Revanth Reddy," he added.
Earlier, on September 16, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar informed that the state government had fixed a compensation of Rs 30 to Rs 40 lakh per acre for land being acquired for the 3rd phase of the Upper Krishna Project.
Addressing a press conference after a special Cabinet meeting at Vidhana Soudha to expedite land acquisition for the phase 3 of Upper Krishna Project, the Deputy CM, who also holds Irrigation portfolio, said, "The state government has decided to fix a compensation of Rs 40 lakh per acre for irrigated land, Rs 30 lakh per acre for arid land and Rs 25 lakh per acre for land acquired for canals."
"The decision on compensation has been taken after consultations with local representatives, farmers and ministers. This compensation amount is limited only to land acquired for Phase 3 of the Upper Krishna project coming under the jurisdiction of Krishna Bhagya Jal Nigama. In view of the delay in the Gazette notification, the state government has decided to initiate the land acquisition process to avoid further delays. The compensation amount is expected to be around Rs 70,000 crore. It has been decided to complete the land acquisition process within three years through direct purchase from farmers," he said.
"The land prices are going up in the area. The previous Bommai government had fixed a compensation of Rs 24 lakh per acre for irrigated land and Rs 20 lakh per acre for arid land. But the farmers had not agreed to the compensation in spite of the formation of a Cabinet sub-committee, and hence the government was unable to go ahead with it. We have now decided to complete the land acquisition in one phase," he said.
Shivakumar mentioned that this project requires the acquisition of 1,33,867 acres of land; of this, 75,563 acres will be submerged, and the canals need another 51,837 acres.
"Another 6,467 acres is needed for the rehabilitation. The land will be acquired as per the 2013 Land Acquisition Act. There are about 20,000 cases which are going on with regard to land acquisition, and these disputes would be resolved through arbitration under the Land Acquisition Act of 2013. The lands which do not have any dispute will be acquired directly," he informed.