Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar, a member of Telugu Desam Rajya Sabha, explained that there would be restrictions on the inclusion of capital clauses in the CRDA agreement with farmers, and said a clause was included in which farmers would be entitled to compensation for the CRDA`s violation of any of the terms of the agreement. The union`s former finance secretary, EAS Sarma, had said at a press conference in February that the acquisition of land under LPS was a clear violation of the law for Amaravati, predicting that fraud and fraudulent activities would likely take place under such vaguely defined systems. Sarma, along with Pandalaneni Srimannarayana, who brought damage to the fragile ecosystem before the National Green Court, filed serious charges against the government – one of them misled farmers and led them to abandon their multi-crop land. The duo say the government`s move threatens food security and the ecosystem. Jagan Mohan Reddy`s government on Wednesday released 195 crore of rupees for pension payments to farmers in Amaravati, who divided their land as part of the land pooling program for the construction of the capital. According to the agreement, from 22 February 2019, the CRDA was to pay compensation of Rs 10 per square metre for residential land and Rs 20 per square metre for commercial land each month. Recently, Jana Sena`s chief, Pawan Kalyan, recalled his interaction with Mr. Naidu, in which he wanted to know how he would ensure the continuation of capital and the success of the land pooling program in the event of a change of government. Mr. Naidu has repeatedly announced that appropriate measures will be taken to give Amaravati legal inviolability and ensure its maintenance regardless of the ruling party.
10 May 2017: When the Andhra Pradesh government launched its Land Pooling Programme (LPS) in December 2014 to acquire land for the new state capital, Andhra Pradesh, it attracted the attention of the whole country. It was certainly a wonderful policy and the government managed to gain the trust and confidence of the rural population of the region identified for the capital. Through the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority Act 2014, the government claims to have collected at least 33,000 hectares of land in more than 29 villages in the identified region to build its “world-class” state capital. The government claims that this land was voluntarily donated by individual farmers. The supposedly successful land pooling programme has become a model for the rest of the country as an alternative and relatively peaceful method of acquiring land for infrastructure projects. If the land allocated is government land, what are settlement houses? In fact, what the government is doing is wrong. Contrary to the claims of former Prime Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Amaravati`s chief architect, who said he has given top priority to protecting farmers` interests, legal experts warn that the development agreement weakens their case. The pension was to be paid in May of each year, according to the agreement between the farmers and the former Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA). According to the agreement signed with the APCRDA, farmers are expected to acquire physical ownership of the land by February 2019, i.e. within three years of notification of the land pooling programme. Lawyer Ch Nirmalatha practices in the city but comes from Undavalli, a wealthy village near Vijayawada.
She fights for her village, her own land, the cultural identity of her people and for her father`s cemetery, which sits on the 30-hectare land she owns with her siblings. “From day one, we begged the government not to take the fertile land. First, it is about the environment. It was a completely green belt, but the last two years have left it dry. Vegetables from the city have become rare and expensive, because agriculture is at a standstill in these villages,” she said. The ruling party`s alarmism at a time when people need advice and support has not helped. Guntipalli Devari*, a marginal farmer, asks: “The amount of land we are recovering after so many years of development is not a cover. Different groups have different numbers.
I was told that I would not receive any compensation. My country is an “assigned country”. We have lived with it for generations. What if the capital doesn`t arrive at all? Devari refers to an ancient, government-initiated and recognized system in which Dalits and peoples of certain castes and marginal tribes received for generations rights to the land of no one on whom they lived and earned their living – thus classifying them as allotted land. If we give away our land now and the proposed development does not take place, what will we get? “Ruling party cadres have spread a rumour that those who do not give up land under LPS will be forced to give it up without compensation. It helped them get land,” says G Naresh Reddy, who owns 0.8 ha in Penumak village but has not passed it on to the government. He organized farmers from the villages of Penumak and Undavalli to protest against the LPS. “We are receiving threats from Telugu Desam party executives and government officials to label our country dry rather than irrigated so that the government can buy it at a lower price,” Reddy said. Mr. Seshagiri Rao, president of the Capital Region Farmers` Federation (CRFF), reiterates the claim that the LPS is a success, saying it violates people`s constitutional rights because it denies them a livelihood. CrFF has also filed a complaint with the World Bank to stop financing projects in Amaravati. “A World Bank team will visit next month in response to the complaints to assess the violation of the provision of resettlement and rehabilitation facilities to those affected,” Rao said.
He also says that the government may have compensated the peasants, but that it has no plan for the rehabilitation of village artisans and landless workers. “There are about 140,000 people affected, but the government has only taken into account 100,000 farmers,” Says Rao. Down To Earth`s phone calls to the Capital Region`s Development Commissioner, Sreedhar Cherukuri, who inquired about landowners` complaints against LPS, went unanswered. Several cases of corruption have also been reported in the past two years. In August, Y S R Jaganmohan Reddy, the opposition leader in the Andhra Pradesh assembly, raised the issue of arbitrary land allocation to key party leaders and bureaucrats. Box game It is worth noting that almost the entire population of the 28 villages where the land is acquired belongs to the Kamma caste, the caste of Chief Minister Naidu. Experts say playing the box card helped the Prime Minister convince people to give land. Party leaders in these villages were also offered positions in the government to deal with any dissent that existed on the ground. For example, when this journalist visited the village of Belakonde in Guntur, marginal farmers voiced their problems, but the big landowners refused to say anything against the LPS. “Everyone in this village is happy with LPS.
I brought my 2.4 ha and I`m happy,” says P Kotesh Rao from Belakonde village. He also informed village chief Narsimha Rao of the journalist`s arrival. “Avoid talking to villagers. I will come later and talk to you in detail,” Rao said by phone. Rama-krishna Raju, a social activist based in Vijayawada, says TDP cadres are trying to silence dissent and continue to inform the media about the “success” of the LPS. “These executives keep telling farmers that the Prime Minister`s initiatives will help them grow millions of times overnight.” “If the prime minister does not keep his promises, the effects will be visible in the 2019 trade union elections,” Narayan warns. Naidu has a great vision for the capital. The inhabitants of the state want to participate in this dream, but for the choice of the capital region – which is located on the most fertile area of land in India. In an interview with The Deccan Chronicle in October 2015, the Prime Minister said: “The farmers have happily donated their land. They have all benefited from land consolidation.
Land prices have skyrocketed seven times. If I don`t open the land and build the city, will the farmers be silent? People in the capital region would like to believe this, but they face the reality of discrimination and uprooting of their livelihoods. They demanded that the APCRDA be responsible for developing the land allocated to them under the land pooling program, in addition to the rapid completion of the remote infrastructure and giving them physical ownership of the developed residential and commercial properties. Andhra Pradesh`s Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) was presented as a model land acquisition initiative. But three years after its introduction, it left farmers no land and no work. .