Similar to opposition to land allotment/acquisition for Indian Institute of Management, SAMEER’s R&D complex and Bhogapuram aero park, the government’s ambitious plan to develop a logistics park near Tadi is facing stiff resistance from farmers.
Drawing inspiration from the success story of integrated warehousing and packaging hub developed at Bhiwandi near JNPT, Visakhapatnam Port Trust has shown keen interest in becoming an important stakeholder to develop the logistic park to make Visakhapatnam as gateway to South East Asia.
In addition to 71.96 acres sought to be acquired for an industrial park in survey number 139 in Anakapalle and Munagapaka mandals near Tadi as per GO Ms. No. 2 issued on January 3, the revenue officials recently made announcements in the villages that in all they would be needing 486 acres for the logistic hub in the same area in survey numbers 138, 139 and 159.
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The farmers say most of the land sought by the government was assigned to them long ago and they have been eking out a living by growing cashew nuts, eucalyptus and mango trees.
“The revenue officials tried to brainwash us by offering peanuts and take away our lands. We have told them that we not only need suitable compensation as per Land Acquisition Act of 2013 but also jobs in the projects coming up in our area,” Logistic Hub Nirvasitula Samkshema Sangham president Ganisetty Satyanarayana has told The Hindu.
The government wants to develop a logistic park along with the campus of Indian Institute of Packaging and a packaging park to meet the requirement of local industries, who mostly import their packaging material from Sri Lanka, Japan and China.
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Government offer
As per the GO issued in January, the government had offered Rs.10 lakh per acre for assigned lands and Rs.5 lakh to those under possession without D-patta.
As per the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, the affected farmers should be given four times of present market value of Rs.10 lakh to Rs.16 lakh per acre, said CPI (M) district secretary K. Loknadham. “The officials are trying to acquire the lands without forming district-level negotiation committee by coercing the farmers,” alleged the CPI(M) district secretary.