VIJAYWADA: The state govt on Thursday withdrew the land acquisition notification in Amaravati. Guntur district collector M Venugopal Reddy issued a series of notifications to withdraw the land acquisition orders for 625 acres located in 21 villages in the capital city area.
The previous TDP govt had pooled up about 34,000 acres of land from farmers in 29 villages which were earmarked as capital city area through the land pooling scheme (LPS). About 25,000 farmers voluntarily parted with their lands for the construction of capital city.
However, farmers, who were growing crops on 1,317 acres of green field areas on the riverbank, refused to part with their lands, prompting the then govt to go for acquisition by force. Though the govt issued notification to take over the lands through acquisition in 2016, it could take around 100 acres by paying compensation. The notification has been hanging in the balance since the time TDP demitted office in 2019.
Chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had promised to drop the land acquisition plans in Amaravati before the 2019 elections, which was challenged by pro-Amaravati farmers, who alleged the move was aimed at spoiling the proposed capital city’s master plan. After local legislator Alla Ramakrishna Reddy demanded the withdrawal of land acquisition notification after YSRCP came to power in the state, the govt directed the municipal administration department to issue notices to individual farmers and take their views on the issue.
Subsequently, a resolution was cleared by the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) governing board to withdraw the notification. After taking the recommendations of CRDA commissioner Vivek Yadav into consideration, Guntur collector Venugopal issued separate notifications.
However, CRDA did not resolve the issue of LPS farmers who got returnable plots on the land identified for acquisition, as the land allotted to LPS farmers should have been exempted from the withdrawal notification or they should have been given alternative plots.
