In an unexpected twist to the whole issue of carving out Agriculture Protection Zones (APZ) in the Andhra Pradesh capital region, MLAs of Telugu Desam Party demanded that the proposed zones should be done away with by the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA).
Speaking in a workshop on the master plan organised by CRDA here on Saturday, Machilipatnam MP Konakalla Narayana said the so-called APZ were detrimental to the larger interests of Krishna district and that farmers themselves have many apprehensions on them.
The CRDA went ahead with its exercise of drawing up master plans without taking farmers into confidence, he alleged, and pointed out that the land prices which hovered around Rs. 1 crore, have plummeted to Rs.10 lakh due to the APZ. MLC Y.V.B. Rajendra Prasad said people’s representatives were being grilled by farmers wherever they went and are therefore looking for a satisfactory explanation to what made the CRDA to chart its own course.
Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas and Vijayawada East MLA Gadde Rammohan expressed similar views and wanted the issue sorted out at the earliest.
