Normally enemies lay siege to the cities they want to capture. Or those who organize agitations to get their demands met lay siege to the government offices or towns to draw the attention of the hostile powers that be. But, in the case of Amaravati Capital region, it is the government which is laying siege to the villages in order to force the villager flee to facilitate the construction of Capital City Amaravati.
Government is declaring this indirect war on these villages, exactly seven months after Jana Sena President Pawan Kalyan toured these thriving agricultural villages. Pawan toured these villages in August 2015 and warned the government that he would not take it lying down if the farmers rights were trampled upon. He was with farmers who were opposition take over of their lands by the government.
Though the government beat a retreat after Pawan’s tour, it launched fresh and indirect attack. Is Pawan watching it?
Undavalli and Penumaka villagers opposed the government land pooling system and refused to surrender their lands to the development of the world-class capital by the Telugu Desam government led by chief minister Chandrababu Naidu. After a protracted agitation and legal battle supported by movie star turned activist Pawan Kalyan and Opposition leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy, government reluctantly exempted these villages from land pooling scheme (LPS). Many of these villagers are small and marginal farmers. But, as their lands are highly fertile, they want to retain their lands as they would not get similar land for the meager compensation they get from the CRDA. So, they fought heroically and succeeded in getting reprieve.
Now, in order to teach the villagers a lesson for taking on the mighty state power, the CRDA has begun steps that look like taking revenge. The CRDA, which is the governing body of the Amaravati Capital Region, has modified the farm lands of these villages as passive zones, they villagers allege. Now, all the lands are under cultivation. Once they are modified into passive zones, the villagers allege, the CRDA could snatch them any time for recreation purposes. This move is in retaliation by the CRDA for they refused to surrender their lands ‘voluntarily’ under LPS or Land Acquisition for the purpose of capital building.
According to capital region farmers association G Naresh Reddy there was a clear mischief to force the villagers to quit as they can’t live in these villages as per the latest changes in the capital master plan. “In the final Master Plan of Amaravati a water storage pond for the Kondaveeti vagu was proposed at Krishnayapalem. Now, to intimidate the villagers, the pond has been shifted to the lands of Penumaka. Deliberately, the pond has been located in the farm lands of those farmers who opposed the LPS,” Naresh Reddy said.
The lands of other anti-LPS farmers have been marked now as passive zone, which later can be converted into recreational zone, he said . ” These land will be given to private companies to develop recreational facilities,” he suspected.How could CRDA modify the nature of zone without the consent of the farmers, they ask.
” The lands are private assets and some are residential areas. We want cancellation of the orders. The lands precious assets as they are just 2 km from River Krishna and ground water is aplenty. The cultivation is thriving with farmers getting enough revenue even though many are small and marginal farmers with less than two acres of land,” Naresh Reddy said. He said the farmer were now forced to knock at the doors of courts for the preservation of livelihood rights.
