BJP against perpetual lease of farm lands to Singapore firms

‘It will land the State in trouble and lead to protracted legal hurdles’

BJP city president D. Umamaheswara Raju says that his party is against allotment of land on 99-year lease to a consortium of Singapore companies, comprising Ascendas-Singbridge and Sembcorp, through the Swiss Challenge system on the ground that it is flawed.

“Transferring land to those companies will land Andhra Pradesh in trouble. It can do little in the event of violation of the agreement. In such a contingency, the Government will be mired in a protracted litigation outside India due to jurisdictional issues. Basically, there is no need at all to give land on lease exceeding 33 years, which is the norm in our country,” he said at a press conference along with former MLA Vellampalli Srinivas here on Wednesday.

Mr. Raju said the Government would be creating problems for itself by conceding to the Singapore companies’ demand to allow them to mortgage the land with local banks for obtaining loans.

“Instead of doing that, it is better to give land to Indian companies, some of which have the capability to execute such large projects as construction of a capital city,” he asserted. Mr. Umamaheswara Raju said that the BJP was opposed to construction of shopping malls, cinema theatres, hotels, and recreation facilities in the core capital city Amaravati, which was supposed to be an exclusive enclave for the Raj Bhavan, Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Assembly, Secretariat, and quarters for Ministers and MLC/MLAs.

“No other Indian capital city has such buildings within its periphery. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is doing it all in an impractical manner and saying that the Central Government is not cooperating with the State. It is not fair on his part to project us in bad light,” Mr. Raju said.

Mr. Raju further said that hundreds of acres falling outside the realm of land pooling was considered ‘un-reserved’. Owners could not take up any construction there nor were they paid compensation.

“If the government does not take these lands out of the control of the CRDA, the BJP will take up cudgels on behalf of the people,” he added.