Talks begin for CBIC land procurement

Nellore: Procuring land for Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor has become a Herculean task for revenue authorities of SPSR Nellore district. Krishnapatnam Port is one of the important nodes in Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor (CBIC). The strategy to develop the CBIC is part of the plan to achieve accelerated development and regional industry agglomeration in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Revenue department had already identified 15,892 acre within 50 km radius to Krishnapatnam Port in Kota and Chillakur mandals.

However, the acquisition process is in limbo because of demand from the farmers of both assigned land and patta land for high compensation. The patta land owners refused to allow even survey of their lands demanding to fix the rate before the survey. The target of the officials is 10,000 acre in Kota and Chillakur mandals in the district within next two months. Sensing the mood of the landowners, collector M. Janaki herself toured both the mandals and assured suitable compensation to the farmers.

To speed up the process and convince the farmers, the collector has constituted a committee headed by Nayudupeta RDO Babaiah. They have been negotiating with the landowners on the rate issue and a breakthrough is almost on the cards. Guidelines are being prepared to enable APIIC to purchase the land directly from the farmers probably for the first time in view of bottlenecks in the new land acquisition policy and also to speed up the process.

Collector M. Janaki, who toured Kota and Chillakur mandals on Sunday, said that they have offered Rs 17 lakh per acre for farmers of patta lands in Kota and Rs 10 lakh per acre in Chillakur mandal. The farmers sought sometime to discuss among themselves on the offer to express their consent. According to the collector, sizeable compensation has been proposed for assigned lands and government lands being cultivated by the poor but they are demanding more than the offer. She expressed confidence in breaking the ice in all seven villages where they intend to procure the land on a war footing.