Dissent over land-pooling gaining momentum

Social activists, experts form platform at national level

December 25, 2014 11:56 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 05:46 pm IST - VIJAYAWADA:

Researchers, experts, architects, social activists, legal luminaries and farmer leaders are forming a common platform at the national-level to expose the gray areas in the Capital Region Development Authority Bill, 2014 that the State Assembly passed recently.

Bringing them together is the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), an organisation that has taken upon itself the task of protecting the interest of farmers, agriculture labourers and those engaged in other occupations in villages that are proposed to be taken over by the government as part of land-pooling to build the capital.

Roundtable on Jan. 5

A roundtable, scheduled for January 5 in Hyderabad, will serve as a platform for the confluence of some of the best brains.

Experts, including Harsh Mander, who works with survivors of mass violence and hunger, as well as homeless people and street children, former Cabinet Secretary R.B. Saxena, former IAS officer and administrative officer of Chandigarh capital project M. G. Devasahayam, social activists Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey, former IICT chief Baburao and national convenor of NAPM B. Ramakrishnam Raju, will attend the session.

“A humongous task like building a new capital should be preceded by a series of debates involving all stake-holders. It is not a private affair, and it is imperative that the government take people into confidence. Only a small group comprising the Chief Minister’s close aides are taking decisions. Nobody knows what’s happening,” said B. Ramakrishnam Raju.

He added that the demands of landless agricultural workers and tenant farmers were more pronounced now that they understood what harm the land-pooling could bring to them.

Kiran Kumar Vissa, State committee member of Rythu Swarajya Vedika is mobilising agriculture workers’ community to protest any step that may go against their interests. Mr. Vissa finds fault with the Chief Minister’s “callous” stand on the issue.

“The proposed capital area has a population of 32,000 agriculture workers, and nearly 12,000 depend on other occupations, while only 10,500 farmers are land-owners. An additional 50,000 people come to these agriculturally vibrant villages from other areas to find work. Thus the government should be talking about livelihood options for nearly 1 lakh people,” he argued.

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