The meeting of a farmers’ delegation from Undavalli, Penumaka and a few other villages with YSR Congress Party president and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday has kicked up a political storm in the state.
The YSRCP and its associated media houses quickly began a campaign claiming that farmers who had given away their lands for Amaravati are now completely dissatisfied with developments in the capital region and are opposing the alleged forcible acquisition of land by the APCRDA authorities.
Jagan also gave an assurance that once he returns to power in 2029, he would stop Amaravati capital works and return the lands to the farmers. Instead, he said he would develop the capital city in the MAVIGUN corridor.
This has led to talk on social media that Amaravati farmers are revolting against the government and favouring Jagan’s MAVIGUN concept.
Within a day, the state government quickly came up with a background check of the farmers who met Jagan.
According to sources, these farmers do not belong to the Amaravati capital region at all and had been consistently opposing the capital development initiative since its inception in 2014.
These farmers from Undavalli and Penumaka chose not to participate in the land pooling scheme and instead retained ownership of their properties.
Under the aegis of former MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, they moved the High Court and obtained a stay order on land pooling in these villages.
As a result, the Naidu government did not touch these villages and went ahead with capital works in other villages.
Some of these farmers reportedly continued agricultural activities on their lands, while others are alleged to have sold portions of their holdings through private transactions over the years.
Supporters of the capital project argue that these individuals cannot legitimately claim to have suffered injustice because they were never compelled to surrender their lands under the pooling system.
“Right from the beginning, they have had the backing of the YSRCP, and a majority of them are active members of the party. So, there is no surprise in them meeting Jagan,” an official said.
What has made them worry, according to these sources, are the notices issued by the APCRDA for acquiring part of their lands for important infrastructure projects, such as linking the Seed Access Road with the national highway, expanding Kondaveeti Vagu and developing portions of the proposed N-11 road corridor.
“They say they will go to court to stall the land acquisition, but they are aware that they may not win the case because the state government is proceeding strictly according to the 2013 Land Acquisition Act. This will leave these farmers neither here nor there. They would have got the benefit of developed plots had they given their lands under land pooling,” the official said.
