Land pooling for capital kick starts at Nelapadu

Municipal Administration Minister releases notification under CRDA.

Farmers handing over affidavits to Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana at Nelapadu village in Thullur mandal in Guntur District on Friday. Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

Minister for Municipal Administration P. Narayana on Friday released the gazette notification of Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) under Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) at this village kick starting a massive exercise of pooling of thousands of acres for constructing a new capital for Andhra Pradesh.

Over the next three months, the CRDA plans to acquire 50,000 acres n Thullur, Tadikonda and Mangalagiri mandals for a green field capital. The master plan for the capital is expected to be ready by the end of June.

Farmers in this village became the first stakeholders by voluntarily giving consent letters to become part of the LPS to the Minister. They signed the consent letters in the form of an application form along with a signed affidavit included in Form 9.3 of the notification.

“I am happy to be part of the new capital and we will wholeheartedly support the Chief Minister. My sons and daughters, even those abroad, were willing to give away our lands,’’ said village elder Dhanekula Rama Rao, who said that he was giving away his 50 acres.

A woman, Kommineni Adilakshmi, said she had no qualms about giving her 3.1 acres.

The village, where cotton is cultivated, has 1,417 acres out of which 1,220 acres are registered patta land. There are 685 farmers in the village and most of them had come forward to be part of the Land Pooling Scheme.

Later addressing a meeting, Mr. Narayana promised 24X7 power and water supply to the villages notified under the Capital Region. Villages would be provided with wide roads, drains and other civic amenities. He also promised not to disturb buildings, pucca houses and religious places during construction.

Tadikonda MLA Tenali Sravan Kumar, Collector Kantilal Dande, Joint Collector Ch. Sridhar and RDO M. Bhaskar Naidu were present.

The exercise of land pooling is expected to take momentum from Monday. Teams comprising revenue and survey personnel headed by Deputy Collectors have reached the villages. Temporary arrangements were made to accommodate the officers and houses were taken on rent.