Delay in amaravati capital project: Farmers seek compensation for ‘mental agony’

Some of the farmers on Monday served notices on the AP Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA), which was constituted in 2015 to develop the capital city at Amaravati, demanding that they be paid suitable compensation for the delay in handing over the reconstituted plots and developing the capital infrastructure.

Three weeks after getting the much-needed relief in the Andhra Pradesh high court which upheld Amaravati as the only capital of the state, the farmers of the capital region are now asking for monetary compensation for their mental agony caused by the state government for not completing the capital project in the last three years.

As per the agreement signed with APCRDA, the farmers were allotted 250-400 square yards of commercial plot besides 1,000 square yards of residential plots in the capital region, for every acre of land they had surrendered to the authority. (HT Photo)

Some of the farmers on Monday served notices on the AP Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA), which was constituted in 2015 to develop the capital city at Amaravati, demanding that they be paid suitable compensation for the delay in handing over the reconstituted plots and developing the capital infrastructure.

“The APCRDA has to pay compensation for the period of delay at the rate of ₹50 per square yard per month for residential plots and ₹100 per square yard per month for commercial plot, besides an amount not less than ₹300,000 per every acre of agricultural land surrendered under Land Pooling Scheme for causing mental agony to the farmers and for the deficiency in service,” said senior advocate K Indraneel Babu, who served the notice to the APCRDA on behalf of a farmer Kancherla Omkar from Velagapudi village.

Omkar had surrendered 18.80 acres of land to the state government for the construction of the capital at Amaravati. “If the APCRDA fails to pay the compensation, the farmers would approach the court seeking legal remedy,” Babu said.

The previous government had acquired 34,385 acres of land from 28,526 farmers under Land Pooling System (LPS) for the construction of the capital city in 2015. As per the agreement signed with APCRDA, the farmers were allotted 250-400 square yards of commercial plot, depending on the location, besides 1,000 square yards of residential plots in the capital region, for every acre of land they had surrendered to the authority.

In the notice, the advocate pointed out that the APCRDA was obligated to complete basic formation of roads and physical demarcation of plots, develop trunk infrastructure and hand over physical possession of the reconstituted plots within three years from the date of final LPS notification.

“The final LPS notification was issued on December 30, 2016 and hence the reconstituted plots should have been handed over to the farmers with all the developed infrastructure by December 30, 2019,” he said.

However, he said, the APCRDA has not even formed the basic roads, causing huge financial distress to the farmers and left them without any source of livelihood, causing mental agony.

“Had the authority developed the trunk Infrastructure in accordance to the master plan within timeline prescribed, the farmers would have got alternative source of livelihood through reconstituted developed residential and commercial plots,” he said, adding that the farmers had to procure finances from several private sources to sustain themselves and consequently have been pushed into debt trap.

While asking the APCRDA to commence and complete the development of Amaravati infrastructure and handover the physical possession of the reconstituted residential and commercials plots, the farmers are asking for the monetary compensation from the authorities for the delay.

The advocate also sent a separate notice to the AP Real Estate Regulatory Authority (APRERA) to protect the interests of the farmers who had surrendered their lands for the capital and impose penalty on the APCRDA for not completing the project on time.

When contacted, a senior official of the APCRDA said he was not ware about the notice served by some farmers seeking monetary compensation for the delay in completion of the LPS scheme.

“But there is nothing new in their demand. They raised the issue even in their petitions in the high court. We shall go by what the court says. Meanwhile, we have already initiated the exercise for handing over the plots to the farmers, besides completing the infrastructure,” the official, who refused to be quoted, said.