Instead of destroying a huge area of land on which crops are grown round the year, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh should be built on dry lands and confined to 6,000 acres as suggested by former IAS officer M.G. Devasahayam, Congress leader Bolisetty Satyanarayana (Satya) said in an appeal to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The capital should not be centralised.
He made this appeal in the background of Mr. Devasahayam and his team’s visit to the villages where the new capital is coming up on behalf of the National Alliance of People’s Movements and the farmers’ resistance. Mr. Satya said at a press conference that the NAPM was organising an interactive dialogue on Greenfield capital for Andhra Pradesh and Central Ordinance amending Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013, on January 19 at the Constitution Club, New Delhi. Eminent persons from the fields of agriculture, environment, sociology, and urban development would participate in the meet.
The Ordinance would totally deny the advantages of LARR Act like need of consent of nearly or more than three-fourths of land owners for acquisition, social impact assessment etc. while an important aspect was that only five per cent of land of a multi-crop in a district could be acquired.
