Finally, survey begins to identify beneficiaries in pollution-hit TADI village in Visakhapatnam

VISAKHAPATNAM: After years of delay, the Revenue department has started its survey to identify the beneficiaries in pollution-hit Tadi village of Parawada mandal in Anakapalle district. The villagers have been urging the AP government to shift them to a safer place as they are suffering from pharma pollution related diseases.
A few decades ago, Tadi village had produced a variety of vegetables and the villagers had supplied the veggies to Vizag city. Now, Tadi village was hit by severe industrial pollution due to the pharmaceutical industrial park adjacent to it.
The govt had proposed compensation for relocating, people of Tadi. However, the villagers demanded a resurvey to assess fair compensation and identify all the eligible beneficiaries.
Over six years ago, TDP govt had sanctioned Rs57 crore to shift Tadi, China Tadi and Tadi BC Colony residents to Peda Mushidivada. But the proposal to shift the villagers remained on paper only.
The AP govt had conducted a survey in the pollution-hit Tadi village in 2017 and identified around 750 beneficiaries. The govt had announced the compensation for only houses and not for the lands in the village. We have been demanding the government to announce relocation of the villagers and announcement of fair compensation and add more beneficiaries. But the successive governments ignored the appeals of villages, said G Satyanarayana, an activist. The survey began a few days ago but the governemnt is yet to issue any order for compensation and relocation of Tadi villagers, he pointed out.
Speaking to TOI, Parawada Tehsildar, SV Ambedkar said revenue department teams began the GPS survey in the Tadi village to identify all the beneficiaries. In the previous survey, the revenue department identified more than 700 beneficiaries. The ongoing survey will conclude in the next week and around 200 beneficiaries will add as some youngsters got married while a few more became adults, he added.
Once the survey is completed, we will submit the survey report to the Anakapalle district collector. The govt had identified around 64 acres of land Peda Mushidivada for rehabilitation of Tadi villagers and some more land required for the rehabilitation as the number of beneficiaries will increase, he added.
The polluted Tadi village has around 800 households with over 2,600 population. We do not have words to describe the pollution caused by the pharma city. We are hoping that the NDA government will consider our long pending demand and will take steps to relocate Tadi village, said Boddapalli Appa Rao, a native of Tadi village. We have been waiting for compensation and relocation from Tadi to a safer place for more than a decade, he added.
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