Farmers lay siege to district collectorate
Representational image
Visakhapatnam: The international Greenfield airport proposed at Bhogapuram mandal in Vizianagaram district seems to have hit a roadblock due to the stiff resistance by the farmers. On Monday, thousands of farmers from Bhogapuram mandal, along with their family members, laid siege to the district collectorate in Vizianagaram, demanding the state government to roll back the proposal to pool land for establishing the airport.
While the agitation was spearheaded by an all party forum which was formed only to oppose Bhogapuram airport, leaders from ruling party TD also participated.
It may be recalled that the government wanted to obtain around 15,000 acres of land to set up the airport and an aviation city and the farmers staged a massive rasta roko on the national highway on an earlier occasion protesting the issue.
Meanwhile, the government, through land pooling scheme that is being implemented in the new capital region, wanted to take the required land from 12 revenue villages and 16 panchayats of Bhogapuram mandal. While majority of the population in these villages depend on agriculture, the skyrocketing of land prices due to real estate boom has prompted them to abstain from giving away their land to government at paltry rates.
“What are we going to do if the government takes away our land? We don't know anything else other than farming. We will lose our livelihood. Why does government need such huge tracts of land for an airport? We don't want the airport in Bhogapuram, let the government change its plans," said Uppada Suryanarayana, a farmer.
Meanwhile, 'the district collector has appointed a team comprising four deputy collectors and 12 tahasildars to conduct the related survey and other activities in this area. Each Tahasildar will visit a village and convince the villagers about the project and explain them about its benefits.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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