Amaravati: The government has decided to crack whip on non-pooling farmers in the Amaravati capital region by using the Land Acquisition Act (LAA). This is creating fear in the hearts of farmers belonging to Penumaka, Undavalli and other areas.
The CRDA pooled 33,000 acres of farmland and has to collect 2,500 acres more. The non-pooling farmers, who are against the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) and LAA implementation, confirmed that they would continue their fight against the CRDA.
The anti-LPS farmers, who are claiming that the government cannot collect multi-crop lands under LAA, are planning to take the matter to court in their pursuit of justice and launch a massive agitation at the state and national levels.
Rajadhani Farmers leader, G. Naresh Reddy said the high court had already given stay orders to 800 non-pooling farmers of and they were continuing cultivation by virtue of these orders.
AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu warned the non-pooling farmers that their land would be collected by exercising the LAA by October this year. He said that no one could “save non-pooling farmers from land acquisition".
This angered the non-pooling farmers, who bemoaned the fact that rulers were becoming encroachers. "The CRDA collected the required 33,000 acres for the establishment of the new capital: when the government is going to establish the capital city of Amaravati on only 900 acres then what is the need for the forcible collection of 2,500 acres in Penumaka and Undavalli," he asked.
Mr. Naresh Reddy and other farmers, who conducted an informal meeting about LAA implementation, alleged that the government was doing real estate business, selling/leasing lands to foreigners at Rs 4 crore per acre.
"The CRDA is paying a nominal amount of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh only per acre as annuity to Metta and Jareebu lands for the next 10 years, but collecting Rs 4 crore per acre and earning Rs 3.95/3.93 crore profit per acre instantly without making any investment. The government is cheating farmers by doing business with our land."
They said the government’s core buildings would come up in Rayapudi, Uddanda-rayunipalem and Lingayapalem and that the CRDA was collecting their lands to give them to foreign companies. The state government would not succeed in collecting multi-crop fertile lands under the LAA, the farmers said, with confidence in their voice.
