govt warned of ‘angry backlash’

Vijayawada: A round-table conference of farmers here on Saturday unanimously resolved to put up a strong resistance to TDP government’s move to “snatch” fertile lands in the name of building capital city. It cautioned the government of “angry backlash” if it tried to forcibly acquire the fertile lands.

The conference was organised jointly by the Action Committee of Thulluru Farmers and Farm Labourers and Krishna Delta Parirakshana Samith (Krishna Delta Protection Federation) at K L Rao Bhavan. Retired IAS officer of the Haryana cadre and the administrative officer of the Chandigarh capital second phase M G Devasahayam, members of the National Alliance for Peoples’ Movement (NAPM), former minister Vadde Sobhanandreeswara Rao, farmers’ leaders Yerneni Nagendranath, M V S Nagi

Reddy, CPI-ML leader Gurram Vijayakumar, CPI-M city secretary Ch Baburao and Thullur farmers’ leaders Mallela Seshagiri Rao, M Harindranath Chowdary, Anumolu Gandhi and others spoke. The speakers one after another laid into the State government for not being transparent on “land pooling” scheme to acquire land for capital city.

While welcoming the decision to locate the capital between Vijayawada and Guntur, the speakers wondered why the government had failed to spell out its proposals clearly. Contradicting statements by Ministers came in for sharp criticism. There was no clear-cut proposal on compensation and package to the farmers. The government had so far not come out with the blue print or master plan to make things clear to the people, they said.

The farmers and politicians demanded that the government give clarity of its proposal to acquire as many as 30,000 acres of land for building a capital city. They asked the powers that be to show where such a massive capital on such a vast expanse was built in the world. Retired IAS officer Devasahayam said the land pooling proposed by the State government was not valid in the eyes of law and it was in fact against the Land Acquisition Act 2014.

He wondered why the government was turning a blind to the law and proposing to develop capital in violation of the provisions of the law. Infrastructure in Chandigarh was built on 15,000 acres in two phases and the population there had now increased to 15 lakh mark. It took 50 years to achieve the feat in Chandigarh.

In case of Andhra Pradesh capital, it would not cross 10 lakh population mark in next 50 years as the location has the advantage of Vijayawada on one side and Guntur on the other. He ridiculed the proposal to acquire 30,000 acres of land from the farmers. It was clearly against the advice of the Sivaramakrishna Committee.

Former Minister Sobhanadreeswara Rao wondered why the government had not made its plans public as far as land acquisition was concerned, availability of resources and proposed structures for the capital. He also demanded that the State government make public whether the Union government was willing to provide funds for building capital city on such a vast expanse of lush green farmlands.

The CPI-M leader Baburao said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu demanded release of blue print or master plan for the capital to facilitate healthy debate on it. “Capital cannot be a private affair of TDP or the family affair of Naidu,” he said.