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Fix date for annuity to Amaravati farmers, high court asks Andhra government
As per the agreement, each farmer in Andhra Pradesh has to be paid yearly ₹30,000 per acre for dry lands to ₹50,000 per acre for wetlands for 10 years with an increase by 10% every year. Besides, landless poor who were working as agriculture labourer in the surrendered lands have to be paid ₹2,500 per month.
The Andhra Pradesh high court on Wednesday asked the state government to come up with a date within which it would pay annuity to Amaravati farmers who had given away their lands for the construction of the capital city. This is not the first delay in payments to the farmers.
Last year too, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government released ₹195 crore towards payment of annuity to farmers of Amaravati on June 16, a day after they moved the high court.
In 2020, too, the annuity payment was not done till August and the farmers had to move the high court to get their payment, besides staging dharna at the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) office.
Hearing a petition filed by the Amaravati farmers, high court judge justice Manavendranath Roy asked the government to file a counter with a clear deadline for payment of annuity as per the agreement signed between the farmers and APCRDA in 2015.
Counsel for the state government,Kasa Jaganmohan Reddy requested that the court grant time to file the counter. The next hearing in the case will happen after two weeks.
As per the agreement, each farmer has to be paid yearly amount of ₹30,000 per acre for dry lands to ₹50,000 per acre for wetlands for 10 years with an increase by 10% every year. Besides, landless poor who were working as agriculture labourer in the surrendered lands have to be paid ₹2,500 per month.
The annuity was supposed to be paid in May every year as per the agreement. While the farmers were paid the annuity till 2018, the payments have been delayed for the last four years, forcing them to take to legal recourse.
“The present government has been creating troubles by delaying payment of annuity to 23,000-odd farmers, who had given away their fertile lands to the APCRDA for the construction of the capital. This has been happening every year. We have asked the high court for an early disposal of the case since it is a question of livelihood of the farmers,” advocate Karumanchi Indraneel Babu, who argued on behalf of the farmers, said.The farmers appealed to the high court to instruct the state government to pay the annuity with an interest of 12% for the delay in the payment.
