Farmers caution CM on taking fertile lands

Vijayawada: At a meeting of the farmers and intellectuals on "State development – Capital building" organised under the aegis of the Jana Vignana Vedika, speakers urged the State government to make its plans clear on capital before taking over the fertile lands of the farmers in Thulluru mandal.

The meeting, held at the Indian Medical Association Hall here on Friday, also advised Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to think again before going ahead to take over fertile lands to build the capital. The speakers also requested the Chief Minister to take minimum required land for the capital and withdraw the proposal to acquire 30,000 acres of land from farmers during the first phase as such large tracts of land were not required to build a capital for the State.

Speaking at the meeting, Justice P Lakshmana Reddy, former judge of AP High Court, found fault with the State government for ignoring the Land Acquisition Act, 2013. He wondered how a State government could bypass a law made by Parliament. He sought to advise the farmers of Thulluru to insist on the government to take their lands as per the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 which insisted on adequate compensation and rehabilitation.

The former Judge said that the Act has all the provisions that would extend maximum benefit to the farmers. He asserted that the government could not take one inch of land from the farmers without their consent. He said that the government would have to offer 20 per cent of the developed land to the farmers and there was nothing that the present government was offering to the farmers under the land pooling system. Opposing the idea of acquiring the fertile agriculture lands, the former judge said that Land Acquisition Act 2013 did not permit it unless there was no alternative.

Former minister Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao alleged that the Chief Minister was under pressure from some selfish individuals in the government who were playing mind games with the farmers. Moreover, he said that the capital development was not an issue connected only to the government and the farmers but involved the people of all the 13 districts. The destruction of the fertile lands would also have impact on the Food Security policy of the government, he said.

He said that the Central government had promised to provide financial support for construction of basic infrastructure for the capital. The State government started its works with Rs 16,000 crore revenue deficit, he said and wanted to know what the government proposed to do with the 30,000 acres of land. He said that the farmers and the people would not allow the government to give the land to someone from Singapore or any other company in return to the development of the lands. "Let the government take lands for administrative and residential buildings for the capital not for business. Building clubs is not the priority of the government and it should not take the lands from the farmers," Sobhanadreeswara Rao said.

Former MP Chennupati Vidya, former legislator Malladi Vishnu, YSR Congress leader P Gowtham Reddy, Congress SC Cell State Chairman Korivi Vinay Kumar, Lok Satta leaders D V V S Varma and Ch Vazeer, former MLA Putumbaka Bharati and others were present.

Presiding over the meeting, the JVV President V Lakshmana Reddy opposed the government's proposal of blindly following the Singapore model of capital building.