Locals cultivating the land form association to oppose acquisition of land
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Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT)’s ambitious proposal to develop a multi modal logistics park in an extent of 500 acres, near Anakapalle is likely to face rough weather. Locals who have been cultivating the land for the past 25 to 30 years are not ready to give up the land. Vizag port had identified around 500 acres at Valluru near Anakapalle to develop the mega warehousing and logistics hub on the lines of the one at Bhiwandi near Mumbai.
The plan is that the state revenue department acquires the required land and hands it over it to the VPT to develop the logistics park. It is learnt that the VPT is ready to invest around Rs 600 crore in setting up the logistics park which will also give a fillip to the state government’s ambitious port-led development plan.
VPT chairman M.T. Krishna Babu on an earlier occasion said that Vizag has the location advantage being exactly in the middle of the east coast and infrastructure and logistics facilities are being created, augmented to cater to the vast hinterland of 500 km covering 7 states.
And the mega logistics park planned near Anakapalle will be a shot in the arm for the VPT. Peasants who have been cultivating the proposed land since some years have recently formed into an association to oppose the state government’s land acquisition plan for the logistics park. They have also stopped the revenue department’s teams entering the land to survey at least three times in the last one month. They have decided not to allow government teams to enter their land for any kind of work.
“We have been cultivating the land since more than 30 years. While a few have D Pattas, some of us don’t have any kind of papers. But we have been dependant on this land. We have also appealed to the government earlier so many times to give us pattas. Now, they have come to us saying the land would be acquired for logistics park. We will not allow them to acquire the land,” newly formed Land Oustees Association president Ganisetti Satyanarayana told this correspondent. He added, they may give up the land if the state government comes up with a impressive compensation package.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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