Andhra Pradesh: 30,000 Acres for Capital in 3 Months

Andhra Pradesh government today said it would takeover 30,000 acres of farm land in the 17 identified villages south of Krishna river in the Guntur district for the proposed capital city in the next three months.

The government would acquire the aforesaid land through a pooling system, wherein a land owner would be given a 1,000 square-yard plot in exchange for one acre of land taken from him.

Also, they would be given Rs 25,000 per acre as a compensation towards the loss of livelihood for the next ten years or till such time the plot remains unsold with the owner. An additional Rs 1,250 would be added to the compensation every year.

“We have decided to complete the process of land pooling for the capital city in three months starting tomorrow and hope to get a positive response from the farmers as they also get benefited in the process,” state agriculture minister Prattipati Pulla Rao announced on Thursday after a meeting of the cabinet sub-committee, which was constituted to work out modalities of the land pooling.

According to the minister, there are about 21,000 farmers living in these 17 villages. While 14 of these villages are situated in Tullur mandal, the remaining three villages belong to the neighboring Mangalagiri mandal. Rao said the government was confident of convincing all the farmers to agree to the land pooling arrangement.

According to the land pooling formula, farmers will get a share of 40 per cent of the net developed area of 2,420 square- yards that is left after keeping aside an equal extent of land (around 4,800 square yards will make one acre land) for the development of common infrastructure, the minister explained.

The entire 30,000 acre land would be divided into six sectors each having a size of 5,000 acre, and each of these sectors will have the developed plots to be given out to the farmers closer to their villages.

The government would complete the basic development of the land in nine months, according to the minister. The entire infrastructure required for the capital city, including the state assembly and secretariat complexes would come up in this place, he said. Responding to a question, AP municipal minister P Narayana, one of the members of the cabinet sub-committee on capital city, said the government will look at acquiring land in the next phases depending on the requirement.