VIJAYAWADA: Farmers who parted with their lands for the construction of capital Amaravati have been facing hardships after the YSRCP government, which replaced the TDP regime in June 2019, changed its stand on the capital.
While majority of farmers have had the returnable plots registered in their names despite value erosion to a great extent, a particular group is in an even more challenging position, as they are yet to get ownership rights of the returnable plots which were allotted on either govt lands, or on lands supposed to be acquired as per the land acquisition procedure.
Over 3,300 farmers have got returnable plots on govt or land acquisition lands that fall in the capital city masterplan area. Though a land acquisition notification was issued for acquiring these lands by the then TDP govt, after YSRCP came to power all land acquisition proceedings were stopped. Recently, the govt even withdrew the notification for land acquisition, putting the farmers in limbo.
Even on govt lands which include some endowment lands, the govt did not transfer ownership to Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), which is responsible for plot allotment and registration to farmers. “We have been running from pillar to post for the last five years, but no one even cares to listen to us. We gave away our fertile land which was our only source of livelihood. We have got nothing so far, barring a piece of paper with plot allotment details which cannot be used for anything,” said a 70-year-old farmer from Thulluru.
He and his 65-year-old wife are suffering with multiple health ailments and struggling to meet the ends as they do not have any source of income for the last seven years. They gave away one acre of land to CRDA and got a returnable plot in adjacent Anantavaram village. The returnable plot was on govt land and the same has not been transferred to CRDA yet, due to which they could not get the plot registered on their name.
Puvvada Sudhakar from Amaravati Parirakshana Joint Action Committee (JAC) said over 3,300 farmers are facing this issue.
“The situation of farmers who got plots on govt or non-LPS lands is like getting caught between the devil and deep sea. We have given multiple representations to CRDA officials to resolve the issue, but all our requests fell on deaf ears. We have moved the high court challenging the withdrawal of land acquisition notification and will move another application for these farmers as it is nothing but criminal breach of trust and cheating by the state and CRDA,” he alleged.
