Small farmers say state compensation insufficient
Small farmers say state compensation insufficient
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government’s land pooling policy for the new capital will hit small and marginal farmers while benefiting big farmers. Small farmers say that they will lose their livelihoods if the government takes their lands. Farmers’ associations are also objecting to the state government’s move to acquire agriculture lands for constructing the new capital.
According to official records, in Krishna district, 84 per cent of farmers have less than 5 acres of land and 14 per cent of the farmers have 5 to 10 acres of land. Many farmers own only 2 to 3 acres of land.
Majority of these farmers depend on nurseries, horticulture and commercial crops. While some of them earn Rs 70,000 per acre per year, some earn as much as Rs 5 to Rs 7 lakh per acre.
Kallam Narendar Reddy of Penumaka village, Tadepalli Mandai in Guntur district, said that he had a nursery on 2 acres of land and earned Rs 10 lakh to Rs 14 lakh per year.
He added that if he sold the land he would get around Rs 6 to Rs 7 crore. However, in the land pooling system, the government has said that it will give only Rs 15,000 to Rs 25000 per year. Mr Reddy also said that all the farmers in his village were opposed to the land pooling system.
The state government’s land pooling policy states that it will pool the land from farmers and after development, give back 40 per cent of the land. It has stated that once the land is developed, the farmers will get three to four times the original cost of the land.
The farmers, however, said that there was no guarantee that they would get three to four times the cost. They also pointed out that that they would get good returns only after the construction of the capital city. They said that they did not know how many years it would take to develop the land and construct the capital. Meanwhile, they said would lose their income as they didn’t have any other means of livelihood.
The farmers also said that if the government took their land then they would lose the right to their land. Big farmers usually have other means of livelihood and the land pooling policy will benefit them in the future.
Former MP and farmers’ leader, Yelamanchili Shivaji, said that the ministers said that 1 lakh acres was needed for the construction of the new capital, but in Krishna and Guntur districts, many villages did not have more then 2,000 acres of land.
He questioned the government if so much land was required, how many villages were going to be evacuated? Agriculture scientist working with Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, G.V. Ramanjaneyulu also opposed land pooling for constructing the new capital.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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