Revised CRDA Master Plan comes under attack

• Regularisation of buildings, removal of huts on river bank is being strongly criticised by the Opposition, farmers in the locality
• Locals are at a loss to comprehend the State government’s volte face vis-a-vis structures on the banks of River Krishna

Vijayawada: The State government and the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) are under sharp criticism for its dual policy on the habitations on the banks of River Krishna. The present TDP government which had started its governance two years ago with the Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao threatening to pull down all the permanent structures on the banks of river Krishna and had subsequently served notices is now trying to regularise them.

The irony is that the same government is now getting ready to bulldoze the huts located on the river as proposed in the master plan. There are about 21 permanent structures on the banks of the river, even spread into the river water, including the one occupied by the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, between Sitanagaram at the Prakasam Barrage to Venkatapalem in the south.

There are over 400 huts belonging to the SCs, STs and fishermen located on the river bed at Uddhandarayunipalem and Lingayapalem villages and Tallayapalem habitation. They have been living there for more than four decades, some working as labourers and some cultivating their small holdings in the middle of the river, while the fishermen go for fishing for their living.

“It is unfortunate that the government which had shown the unauthorised buildings on the river banks in the master plan did not show the huts. The government is also planning to regularise these unauthorised buildings and remove those huts, which is highly objectionable,” said CRDA area convener of CPM, Ch Baburao.

He said that the master plan is aimed at displacing several hundreds of poor people, who have been living there for several years. He said that the government had grabbed the small land holdings from them in the name of assigned lands. The government had also deprived them of their livelihood, he added.

Anumolu Gandhi, a local farmer from Rayapudi village, said: “The capital location had displaced farming activity in more than 30,000 acres. Now, the master plan is set to displace houses and the major victims would be the poor.” He further found fault with the statement of the Municipal Administration Minister P Narayana that they had brought down the number of houses to be removed from 3,600 to 360.

The legislator from Mangalagiri, Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, recalled that the Tadepalli Tahasildhar had served notices to the owners of these buildings in February 2015 asking them to remove these illegal structures. “Where have these notices gone? The Tahasildhar had served notices to the owners of 35 buildings on the banks of river. Unfortunately the Chief Minister himself is officially living in one of those buildings which have received eviction notices a year ago,” the legislator added.