Row over land given to Isha foundation

Many people are angry that a private organisation is being given so much of land. The visit of Jaggi Vasudev, state minister Ganta Srinivas Rao, the district collector Babu and other forest officials to the site raised several eyebrows.

The proposed site is nearly 22 km from Vijayawada, four km from Vijayawada-Hyderabad national highway and also close to the proposed capital region of the state on the other side of Krishna river. An acre of this land is estimated to cost between Rs 2 crore to Rs 2.5 crore.

Apart from the cost factor, this land has rich flora and fauna and is a famous tourist destination for the neighbouring villagers.

There are allegations that some key personnel in the government are playing an active role in giving this precious land to a private organisation against the forest department’s rules and regulations.

They criticised the eagerness of these VIPs to persuade the Union government to denotify this forest land and allot it to a Trust of their choice. “It is a well-known fact that it was difficult to allocate even a few acres to prestigious educational institutes like the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), in a land starved district like Krishna. The scarcity of land and the abnormal prices have discouraged many government firms and entrepreneurs from establishing their institutions in the district. In this backdrop, how can the government dare to allocate nearly 500 acres of prime land close to the national highway in Vijayawada that is near the proposed capital city of Amaravathi,” asked Malladi Vishnu, the city Congress president.

“The Vijayawada region boasts of so many prime private institutes and it does not need anymore in the private sector. Hence, the government should rethink its proposal and keep it aside,” opined M. Srinivasa Rao, an academician. “It is better if this land is allotted to landless and homeless poor,” suggested P. Murali Krishna who is linked with various associations.