National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) strongly condemned the dastardly act of Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) officials in bulldozing of 7.30 Acres of Banana crop in Lingayyapalem Village in capital region belonging to the farmer Rajesh Kumar. Noted environmental activist Medha Patar ,national convener of NAPM, Bhupatiraju Ramakrishna Raju, another national convener, and noted scientist Dr Baburao in a statement demanded the CRDA that it immediately compensate the loss and hardship undergone by the farmer and not to repeat the “intentional” mistake.
The CRDA officials on last Tuesday had levelled 7.3 acres of banana plantation of Rajesh in Lingayapalem as he refused to surrender his land voluntarily to land-pooling taken up for construction of capital Amaravati. Some time back, a sugar cane field belonging to Gadde Chandrasekhar in an extent of 5 acres was burnt in Malkapuram village in the same mandal in order to teach a lesson to the defiant farmer. Even though a case was filed no progress had been made in nabbing the culprits.
“It is clear that these acts of Vandalism and intimidation were targeted at the farmers and others who have not surrendered their lands to land pooling scheme and to make them fall in line. The culprits cannot hide their nefarious action under the pretext of mistaken identity,” they said. Even if the officials had mistaken the said land as surrendered, they should have minimum courtesy and decency to inform the farmer before razing the Banana crop unilaterally, they said.
They recalled that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had given clear orders not to touch or work on any of the lands in 29 Villages pending the case.
