Farmers protest in Delhi, meet Amit Shah

New Delhi: Marginal and small-scale farmers from the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) of residuary Andhra Pradesh have reached the national capital to mobilize support from the political parties to prevent the Chandrababu Naidu government from taking away their lands.

They met the BJP National President Amit Shah and expressed their grievances to him. Guntaka Naresh said, “We have explained to Amit Shah about the situation of the farmers, and we listed out reasons why the multi-crop lands in the country should not be taken away from the farmers and should be exempted from the land acquisition Act.”

They also expect that the Central government would exempt the multi-crop lands from the amendment to the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2014 for which the Centre had already issued an Ordinance. It is likely to be taken up in Parliament next week. The farmers hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would take the initiative to exempt the multi-crop lands from the bill.

Fifteen farmers from Penubhaka and Undavalli panchayats of Guntur district have come to the national capital to explain their plight to the leaders of national political parties. On the premises of Andhra Pradesh Bhavan, they also sat on a protest against the Chandrababu Naidu government and the land acquisition scheme under the CRDA.

They showed photographs of their lands, which have the capacity to yield three crops in a year, ranging from fruits and grains to vegetables except for grapes. They ask how the lands that yield groundwater at 20 feet could be taken away from farmers when the government is spending crores of money to irrigate the lands without water. The farmers hope to meet the Prime Minister, President Pranab Mukherjee and also leaders of other political parties such as CPI and CPM. They would be in the capital until they meet the leaders.