Don’t destroy fertile lands, Raghuveera tells govt

• Building a capital city between Vijayawada and Guntur will obliterate lush green fields
• Committee also advised the govt to go in for forest lands to be de-reserved by the Centre

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president N Raghuveera Reddy here on Friday lambasted the State government for proposing to acquire fertile land for building the capital city.


Speaking to the media after participating in a function organised on the occasion of birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru at the Congress office, Raghuveera Reddy took strong exception to the government threatening farmers of Thulluru mandal. He questioned the government on the need to acquire 30,000 acres of land for the purpose.


He recalled that the Sivaramakrishnan committee, after a detailed study, had concluded that building a capital city between Vijayawada and Guntur would obliterate fertile lands. The committee suggested to the government that a capital city be built on forest lands the Union government agreed to de-reserve, he said.


But the advice by the committee and people with wisdom had fallen on the deaf ears of the powers that be, he said. The Andhra Pradesh State Re-organisation Act 2013 also categorically stated that the Union government would de-reserve forest lands to build capital city. He questioned the intentions of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in ignoring the provisions of the Act. The government could have taken the decision to acquire fertile lands to help the rich and the corporate sector.


Asked to react to the allegation of massive corruption in the cloud seeding operations when he was the Agriculture Minister, Raghuveera Reddy dared the government to order an inquiry into it. He had in fact addressed a letter to the Chief Minister, seeking clarifications on the issue and offering to face an inquiry.


Congress leaders Devineni Rajasekhar Nehru, N Narasimha Rao, A Sivanagendra, M Rajeswara Rao, A Srinivasa Kumar, D Avinash and others were present.