KURNOOL: A fresh controversy is raging over the alienation of 50 acres of fertile land used for research purposes at Rayalaseema Agriculture Research Station (RARS) at Nandyal to the proposed medical college. Consequently, the RARS would be shifted to Tangadanche near Nandikotkur.
The government has accorded permission to transfer an extent of 50 acres of available at the NSC block of Thandancha State Seed Farm, Kurnool, to the Registrar, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agriculture University, to relocate the Farmer Training Centre and RARS.
Further, orders have been issued for the alienation of land to an extent 50 acres at Noonepalli village Nandyal mandal in favour of the Director of Medical Education (DME) free of cost for the establishment of a new medical college.
RARS has over 100 years of existence at Nandyal as a premier agri research institute and the seed varieties developed here have been recognised across the world. Particularly, paddy, and cottonseed research, chickpea seed development have earned global acclaim.
Challenging the act of government in relocation of RARS by Poonam Malakondaiah, Special Chief Secretary (Agriculture and Cooperation), the Rayalaseema Saguneeti Sadhana Samithi (RSSS) has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the AP High Court. It questioned how the government could alienate the lands in favour of DME. It said the order of re-establishing RARS at Tangadanche is in violation of the AP High Court's status quo order dated 3-2-2021.
Meanwhile, ANGRAU Registrar has stated that the land to an extent of 50 acres under the RARS would be handed over for new medical college after obtaining the orders from the government for an equivalent and suitable land to the same extent along with the allocation of sufficient financial budget to re-establish the presently available infrastructure facilities such as office building, seed godown, seed processing unit, cold storage unit etc.
