The Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday sent conflicting signals to the farmers who are resisting takeover of their lands for the Machilipatnam port project. The State Cabinet, meeting in Hyderabad, decided to go ahead with the project while a Minister and a ruling party MP rushed to the port town to assuage farmers’ tempers and blamed the administration for issuing a backdated land acquisition notification.
The State Cabinet also decided to extend by 36 months the time limit laid down for completion of the project.
Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy said the port development project dated back to 2010 and a special purpose vehicle (SPV), Machilipatnam Port Ltd, was set up to build the all-weather, Greenfield deep-water port. It was then mandated to acquire 5,324 acres, but had been able to rake together only 524 acres. The government therefore extended the time limit for completion of the project.
Farmers and fishermen in the town have been up in arms since September 1 when the administration published a notification for acquisition of 14,500 acres of private land. The notification was dated August 30, when the land acquisition ordinance was still in force. In the days since then, farmers have staged dharnas on the national highway, attacked policemen and warned off survey teams from their villages.
Despatched to Machilipatnam to troubleshoot for the government, Excise Minister K. Ravindra and Machilipatnam MP K. Narayana on Saturday blamed bureaucrats, including Krishna district collector Babu A, for issuing the backdated land acquisition notification.
Addressing the irate farmers, Mr. Narayana said bureaucrats preferred the land acquisition route “despite our appeals to them to explore ways to postpone it.”
While the State Cabinet said the port project would be gone through, the local administration, fearing violence from farmers, withdrew its personnel from commencing a survey of 14,500 acres of private land in Machilipatnam and Pedana mandals.
“The government will not conduct the land survey given the existing conditions in the villages. We will convince the affected people to part with their land and only then will the survey be taken up,” said Mr. Ravindra.
