Supreme Court's Singur order may hit Andhra Pradesh badly

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court’s verdict on Singur has sent warning signals to those squatting on hundreds of acres of either government land or land acquired from farmers without putting the same to use in the two Telugu states.

The verdict may also trigger farmers’ agitations in both states, particularly in Andhra Pradesh, for return of land as huge chunks of land had been acquired for establishment of Special Economic Zones, which till date, remains unused.

In a setback to the Tatas, the apex court on Wednesday had quashed the acquisition of 1,000 acres of land in West Bengal’s Singur by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya-led CPM government in 2006 for their Nano car project.

The erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation had acquired 82,792 acres between 2004 and 2009, of which it had allotted 47,337 acres for various projects in united AP.

The farmers of Kakinada, in East Godavari district, have been demanding the return of their lands acquired for the Kakinada Special Economic Zone as a huge chunk of the land has remained unutilized since the last 10 years.

Leaders of the KSEZ Vyatireka Porata Samiti, who have been agitating for return of their lands, told this newspaper that AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had attended a workshop organised by them in April 2012 in which he had promised that the TD would stand behind the SEZ-affected farmers in their fight for scrapping of the KSEZ and restoration of their valuable lands.

Instead of scrapping the SEZ, the AP government recently allotted 2094 acres in addition to the 8,400 acres allotted by the earlier Congress government.

Mr P. Subhash, who is appearing for the KSEZ farmers in the High Court, said that there was no development on the lands and most of the farmers were cultivating their lands but the SEZ promoters had stopped water supply.

As many as 22 cases were filed against farmers, including an 80-year-old-woman, a social activist, for supporting the cause of the farmers, he added.

Similarly, 18,000 acres of land has remained idle for the past eight  years that was acquired through negotiations with land-owners by the Vanpic  —Vadarevu and Nizampat-nam Port and Industrial Corridor — project in Guntur and Prakasam districts. The land was acquired by the government and the amount was paid to the farmers by Vanpic Ltd for building a port-cum-industrial corridor with an investment of over '16,000 crore in over 25,000 acres.

Mr Naidu, during the 2014 campaign, had promised that the land would be returned to farmers, but till date there has been no such move from the government’s side.

More than 8,500 acres, which was allotted to the promoters of the Lepakshi Knowledge Hub in Anantapur district, is also lying idle as these lands, along with the lands allotted to Vanpic, had fallen into legal disputes pertaining to the illegal investments case of YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Mr Nageswara Rao, zonal manager of APIIC, said that the corporation had allotted 4,730 acres of the Krishnapatnam Infra SEZ, but promoters had not put the land to use other than erecting some structures on five acres.

Sources close to TS Industrial Infrastructure Corporation said that compared to AP, there were no such big allotments in the state. They said that small pieces of land which was allotted for the IT SEZs were running successfully and the proposals for establishing Economic City on 2000 acres in Medak district was shelved before acquisition proceedings.  

Officials of the IICs of both states said it might not be possible to take back all such lands from promoters as some of them were part of special economic zones notified by the Centre, and some had been privately acquired by companies through consent award.

Mr N. Sreedhar Reddy, former special government pleader of AP in High Court, said that the government had the discretion to use the land once it was acquired for some purpose or the other or give it back to farmers as it was also considered as a purpose and was beneficial for the people.

He said in the Singur case, the Supreme Court had declared that the acquisition itself was bad and struck down the notification for acquisition. Once the notification was struck down, there could not be any further acquisition and that was why it had ordered to give back the land to the farmers.

He said if pressure from farmers mounted on governments, then surely the companies that had taken farmers’ lands through the government would be in trouble.