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Amaravati farmersleft in a lurch after govt proposes capital shift
The site is on land owned by Tatikonda Koteshwara Rao, 45, a resident of Uddandarayunipalem village, who gave it up in a land-pooling exercise so that then chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu could create the dream capital he wanted to build for Andhra Pradesh.
A havan mandap, or platform for a ceremonial fire, and a mound of soil covered by a canopy of iron sheets remain at the site where, on October 23, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for Amaravati, the would-be capital of Andhra Pradesh, amid the chanting of vedic hymns.
The site is on land owned by Tatikonda Koteshwara Rao, 45, a resident of Uddandarayunipalem village, who gave it up in a land-pooling exercise so that then chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu could create the dream capital he wanted to build for Andhra Pradesh.
Four years down the line, Naidu’s dream lies shattered. On December 17, the YSR Congress Party government of his successor Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy said it would shift the administrative capital of the state from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam, retaining the legislature in the city and making Kurnool the judicial capital. For Rao, the decision came like a bolt from the blue.
“I was earning at least ~10-12 lakh a year from my share of 12 acres of fertile land by raising banana plantations, turmeric, neem and occasionally, sweet potato. I was reluctant to part with my land when the previous Telugu Desam Party government requested me to give up my land for the construction of a capital city. But later, I was convinced by other farmers,” Koteshwara Rao said.
To be sure, the Andhra Pradesh cabinet has held off a formal announcement of the proposal to shift the administrative capital.
“We shall take a decision based on the report submitted by a 16-member high-power committee after studying the report of the experts committee and also that of a consultancy group in another three weeks,” minister Botsa Satyanarayana said.
Koteshwara Rao recalled that Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was then in the Opposition, also supported the choice of Amaravati as the new capital, after AP was bifurcated the previous year for the creation of Telangana as India’s youngest state, which would get exclusive control over Hyderabad.
“Had he put his foot down firmly against the capital city here, I would not have given up my land. But now I feel cheated as Jagan is dumping Amaravati and moving to Visakhapatnam,” Rao said.
Uncertainty looms for nearly 25,000 farmers who had given up their lands to the AP Capital Region Development Authority for the construction of a new capital city in Amaravati. As many as 20,490 farmers are marginal farmers, who owned less than one acre of land, and 5,267 farmers owned two acres to less than 10 acres. Only 159 farmers were in possession of more than 10 acres.
The previous government had acquired 33,000 acres of land from these farmers under a Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) by promising to return about 20% of developed land for residential use and up to 10% for commercial use within Amaravati. Accordingly, each farmer was allotted 1,000 to 1,250 sq yards of residential plots and 250 to 400 sq yard of commercial plots depending on the quality and location of their lands. Except in a few cases, almost all the plots were registered in the name of the farmers.
The present government hasn’t explicitly said what it would do with the 33,000 acres of land if the administrative capital is shifted from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
Construction has already begun in a vast extent of this acquired land for laying of access roads, internal roads, laying of trunk lines, building of culverts, and the construction of a Secretariat, assembly, high court and residential quarters for lawmakers, ministers, All India Service officers and state government employees.The Naidu government had also allotted plots of land to various institutions and corporate houses.
“All these works have come to a halt and even if they are completed, they would not serve any purpose once the administrative capital is shifted to Visakhapatnam and high court is shifted to Kurnool. Except for a period of 15-20 days of winter and monsoon sessions, the assembly will remain more or less closed all through the year. So, Amaravati will remain dead for all practical purposes,” said Kancheti Brahmanandam, a software engineer from Karlapudi village.
Though panchayat raj minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy announced that the lands would be returned to the farmers, they are not willing to accept them. “What shall we do with the lands? They have become unfit for cultivation, as roads and buildings have come up. The boundaries have been erased and soil from the construction sites has been dumped on the plain fields. The soil has turned hard due to lack of cultivation for the last four years,” said K Ramesh, a farmer from Thullur.
Municipal administration minister Botsa Satyanarayan said the government would develop plots by completing the infrastructure facilities like roads and drainage and drinking water facilities. This proposal has also been spurned by the farmers. “The plots are of no value without development of the capital city. Who will buy our plots here? We would be losing heavily,” said B Srinivasa Rao, also from Thullur.
Most of the plots that were allotted to farmers during the TDP regime have already changed hands. “Some of us had sold our plots to others as we needed money for performing marriages of daughters, funding higher education of our sons and investing in other petty businesses,” said K Chandrasekhar Rao of Rayapudi, who gifted two acres of land each to his two daughters. “Now, these plots have lost their commercial value.”
Farmers are not willing to accept any solution other than maintaining status quo with Amaravati remaining the administrative capital. “We are also getting ready to fight a prolonged legal battle to stop the shifting of the capital,” said farmer Kommineni Satyanarayana.
Thousands of farmers, along with their families, have hit the streets in protest and are staging demonstrations in every village
