Officials begin survey of families in Toguta

Work taken up two months after deadline set by HC

Officials have started house-to-house survey at Toguta mandal headquarters on Sunday. The survey is being conducted on the direction of the High Court and is expected to be completed in a couple of days.

The farm labourers of Toguta mandal headquarters had moved the High Court seeking resettlement package stating that they had lost their wage earning and livelihood as the farmers had sold their lands to the government for the construction of Mallannasagar reservoir under the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project.

The government was reluctant to extend Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) package to the farmers of this mandal headquarters under the grounds that the village was not getting submerged and hence they were not eligible for the package.

Almost two months after getting directions from a bench comprising Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy and Justice P. Naveen Rao of the the High Court to conduct a survey at Toguta village and submit a report by August 23, the officials started the survey in the village.

The Bench in its order on August 19, 2019, had taken note of the issue that the officials had not taken up the issue of the livelihood of artisans and farm labourers. The court directed the officials to “… conduct a door-to-door survey in respect of Toguta village and file report number of persons who are living in the village, who are dependent on agriculture working as agriculture labour and artisans, affected by acquisition process and place before this court. The report shall be filed before this court by the next date of hearing. Posted on 23.08.2019.”

The officials did not bother to take up the survey and submit the report by the date to the court. During last week the issue reportedly came to the notice of judicial officials who took the issue seriously and directed officials to submit the report.

Following court strictures the officials began the survey on Sunday. According to sources, about 40 officials have formed as 10 teams and are conducting the survey collecting all the details from each of the family residing in the village limits. The details collected include how many are family members, how much land was lost, whether the family was of farm labourers and dependent on the land that was sold by other farmers.

Toguta Tahsildar did not respond when contacted.

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