Andhra farmers concerned as new regime stalls work in Amaravati

In last week’s annual budget, the government earmarked an insignificant amount of ₹500 crore for Amaravati, thereby sending clear signals that construction of the capital city was not in the list of priorities of CM Jagan Mohan Reddy.

With the YSR Congress government headed by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy pushing the ambitious project of Amaravati, the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh, to the back burner, uncertainty looms over the fate of farmers whose lands were acquired for the project.

The capital region, which had witnessed hectic construction activity till April this year, is now wearing a deserted look, with the contractors winding up their work and more than 20,000 construction labourers leaving for their native places. (HT PHOTO.)

Work on the first phase of the capital city project costing over ₹51,000 crore has come to a grinding halt following instructions from the new government. The state government has made it clear that all the projects whose work has not yet begun will be cancelled and the work whose expenditure has not crossed 25% of the original estimate should be stopped forthwith.

In last week’s annual budget, the government earmarked an insignificant amount of ₹500 crore for Amaravati, thereby sending clear signals that construction of the capital city was not in the list of priorities of CM Jagan Mohan Reddy.

When contacted, Commissioner of AP Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) P Lakshmi Narasimham said the work on the legislators’ residential complex, IAS officers’ quarters, Secretariat employees’ quarters and Class IV employees’ quarters was nearing completion, but all the other work had come to a standstill.

“We are awaiting clarity from the government on the resumption of capital city works. I am hopeful the work will begin in another six months,” he said.

The capital region, which had witnessed hectic construction activity till April this year, is now wearing a deserted look, with the contractors winding up their work and more than 20,000 construction labourers leaving for their native places. “They were all feeling sad, as they thought they would get work for at least another two years. We are also helpless, as the government has not yet cleared our bills worth more than ₹20 crore,” Boddu Bhaskar Reddy, a civil engineer on the site said.

This uncertainty on the part of the YSRC government has been causing anxiety among the farmers. The previous government had acquired 34,075 acres under land pooling system from 28,148 farmers, small and big, in 29 villages. Under this system, each farmer would be paid an annuity amount of ₹30,000 per acre for dry lands and ₹50,000 per acre for wet and semi-urban lands for a period of 10 years with an annual increment of 10 per cent. The agricultural labourers, too, were paid ₹2,500 per month towards wage compensation.

Besides, the farmers were allotted 1,000 square yards of residential plot and 450 square yards of commercial plot for every acre of wet/semi-urban lands; and 1,000 square yards of residential plot and 250 sq yards of commercial plots for every acre of dry land. Except in case of a few disputed areas, allotment and registration of plots was done for all the farmers, a senior official of the APCRDA said on condition of anonymity.

For the first three years, the farmers had received their annuity payments by every June without any hassle. “This year, we have not got the amount till date. We were told the new government is facing financial problems. We are worried, because that is the only source of livelihood for us,” said Vemparala Srihari Rao (68) of Lingayapalem village, who gave away his two-acre of wet land to the capital and was expecting to get ₹1.20 lakh this year.

Shaik Fareed (55) of Rayapudi, however, is optimistic. “The Jagan government says it will first look into corruption involved in land pooling and then will clear the dues of annuity payment. We have made a representation to the government through local leaders to clear the payments at the earliest,” he said.

However, there are other farmers who are apprehensive that the inordinate delay in the construction would affect their livelihood on the long run. “We have been allotted plots in lieu of the lands we surrendered to the government. Unless the residential and commercial plots are developed as per the layout, we cannot think of either selling them or giving them for development to make some money. We don’t know how long it will take,” V Sridhar of Lingayapalem said.

There are also apprehensions that the new government might scale down the area of the capital city and return the remaining part of the lands to the farmers, whoever is willing for it. “Nobody will be willing take back their lands, as roads, pipelines and other infrastructure works have already commenced in many parts. Even if we are given the lands back, we cannot take up cultivation there amidst buildings and roads,” asserted Bethapudi Jyothi, a small farmer of Mandadam village located in the core capital area.

A top official of the APCRDA, however, allayed their apprehensions. “As of now, there is no proposal to make any changes in the master plan of Amaravati and reduce the size of the project,” he said.

While the budgetary allocation is very meagre, the project purely depends on the resources raised from external borrowings. The government has spent around ₹10,000 crore on the capital city so far, though work worth nearly ₹16,000 crore is in various stages of construction.

“We have got just ₹1500 crore from the Centre and another ₹1200 crore from HUDCO. The state raised another ₹2,000 crore through capital bonds. The NITI Aayog recommended another ₹1,000 crore. We have sent a detailed project report for ₹51,000 crore to the Centre but there is no response so far,” the CRDA official said.

The previous government had put forth the proposal to the World Bank for ₹7,000 crore loan for infrastructure development, but the Centre agreed to provide counter guarantee for only ₹3,324 crore.“Now, the bank wants to inspect the ongoing work and also refused to release the amount for the completed infrastructure work like roads. We have not accepted the conditions and told the bank to give us a month’s time to come out with a fresh loan proposal,” the official said.

The Telugu Desam Party has accused the Jagan government of destroying the brand image of Amaravati. “We tried hard to sell the project to prospective global investors who evinced interest in coming to Amaravati. Now that the project has come to a halt, it will be extremely difficult to attract investors again,” former finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said.