Land price hike puts farmers in dilemma
More than hundred cars visit the village on sundays to make enquiries about lands
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-09-03 01:13 GMT
Vijayawada:The ongoing speculation about the state capital has catapulted rural economy overnight in the suburbs of Vijayawada city. Farmers are caught in a dilemma of selling their land with land prices skyrocketing day by day.
Venkata Reddy of Agiripalli mandal headquarters, 25 km away from Vijayawada said the roadside land is fetching Rs 2 crore on the Agiripalli-Gannavaram stretch. He said the same situation prevails on Agiripalli-Nuzvid road and in Totapalli village.
Another farmer Sambasiva Rao said that farmers are afraid of selling their land, as the agents are selling them at a much higher price within a month of making the deal with farmers.
He said one acre of prime land, which cost around Rs 10 lakh last year, now costs around Rs 2 crore. He said that some of the farmers, who sold one or two acres of land , are purchasing land at far off places like Chatrai and Tiruvur bordering Khammam district for around Rs 10 to Rs 20 lakh.
A real estate agent Suribabu said that more than hundred cars used to visit the village on Sundays to make enquiries about lands. He said the local people are unable to purchase even a small piece of land as it costs minimum Rs 10 lakh. Despite the real estate boom, small farmers are unable to sell their land as they possess one or two acres of land.
Farmer Gangaiah feels losing land is like denying livelihood for the coming generations. He said that small farmers would not prefer to sell their lands. A major portion of the area in Agiripalli mandal has mango groves, the farmers are busy considering changing land values in the hope of a better future for the region.
Realty boom in Guntur takes away farm land:
The easy money in the capital boom is making the farmers of Guntur district idle as they are being forced to sell their farmlands. An acre of land, which was once hardly sold for Rs 20 lakh, is now being priced at Rs 1.50 crore to Rs 2 crore.
Guntur is known for commercial crops like paddy, chilli, turmeric, maize, banana, betel leaf etc. But, the news about considering Tedepalli, Tulluru, Amaravati, Mangalagiri, Tadikonda, Guntur and adjacent areas for new capital has hiked the land price as NRIs, politicians and businessmen are eyeing lands here.
Farmer G. Venkateswarlu of Amaravati said that most of the farmers are now selling their farmland and purchasing properties only to give them on rent. With this, the farmers apprehend that Guntur will be robbed of all its farmland and it will have to import essential agriculture crops.