Don't Scare farmers On Land Pooling: YSR Congress

The YSR Congress said that the TDP government should come out with guidelines on land acquisition for the proposed new capital, and should shun from seizing fertile agriculture land by berating the farmers and shifting the blame onto the Opposition Parties.

"There has been no concrete proposal on the land acquisition, and what provisions of which Act the State is following are not known. The Opposition Parties are not being taken into confidence. Instead, the Government is scaring the farmers with veiled threats, even as fake registrations are on the rise baffling the genuine land owners," Party senior leader Ummareddy Venkateswarlu told reporters on Sunday.

The Sivaramakrishnan Committee said that agriculture land should not be used for building the new capital, and the Central Act specified that unless 70% of the farmers agreed, their land could not be taken away, Venkateswarlu informed. The government had formed a committee headed by the Finance Minister Y Ramakrishnudu for land pooling, he said, but the sanctity of the Committee was not known. He added that if it had any guidelines, they should be put on public domain so that farmers would be able to understand clearly.

The Committee had said that it would pool one lakh acres of land in four phases, which was highly ambitious and harmful to farmers, Venkateswarlu opined, adding that nowhere in the country was the capital set up in such a huge extent of land.

"The package of 1,000 square yards of developed area for one acre is not acceptable to many of the farmers, who are being threatened and subjected to various pressures to give up their lands and livelihoods. This is not acceptable. We are not against the capital city coming up near Guntur, but Talluru village and its surroundings are tense and farmers are feeling insecure. As the main Opposition Party, we have a duty to protect the rights of the farmers, and if the State dubs it as instigating the farmers, it is ridiculous. The YSR Congress team has toured the villages, and will again take up another visit to study the situation," Venkateswarlu said. (INN)