The announcement of 3 capitals in the name of decentralization of development by the YSRCP government shattered the farmers who gave land for the capital. The decision has literally thrown the farmers onto roads. They are now lamenting whether they had committed a mistake by voluntarily parting with 33,000 acre fertile lands for the construction of capital. They have been agitating relentlessly for the last 250 days since the day three capitals was announced, but to no avail.
Farmers who feed others are now trapped in the fangs of hunger as the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government has stopped Rs 30,000 annual lease compensation agreed by the previous TDP government. Apart from small and marginal farmers who donated half acre and one or two acres, there are big farmers who gave around 40 acres of land. Farmers who once cultivated three crops in a year and led happy and contended lives are now in tatters. They have nothing to look forward, future bleak, no land, no work and no avenues for livelihood.
Pushed into misery
Until six years back, farmers of the capital region used to cultivate three crops in a year. Small and marginal farmers with land holdings of half-an-acre to five acres did not face any financial bumps as lands were fertile and water is copious.
However, their lives changed after they gave away their lands to the construction of capital. The previous government paid them an annual grant of Rs 30,000 per acre as compensation for loss of crops. In fact, compared to around Rs 7 lakh they used to earn by cultivating three crops in three acres per year, this compensation was a pittance. Jagan’s government decision in favour of three capitals, suddenly turned their world upside down. Lands which were sold at Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000 per square yard earlier now fetch hardly Rs 5,000 a sq yard.
Since then, the farmers have been staging protests daily against the so-called decentralization. More than 60 farmers lost their lives, many due to cardiac arrest, during this agitation. They are now clueless about their and their children’s future.
Government moving on a different path
Recently, the state government abolished Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) and replaced it with the Amaravati Metropolitan Development Authority (AMDA). The government is of the view that abolition of CRDA will invalidate the agreement the previous government had entered with farmers. However, the decentralization (3 capitals) and CRDA Repeal Act cases are now in the Supreme Court. This pending litigation prevented the government to hold its capital shift plans temporarily.
Guest house or headquarters?
A foundation stone was laid for a large ‘guest house’ on a 30-acre- land in Vizag on August 15. Though the government is claiming that it is only a guest house, sources say this cluster of buildings has been designed to be used as the government headquarters. It has been decided to complete constructions of these buildings in 8 months. To circumvent judicial scrutiny, the state government appears to be carrying out its arrangements in disguise, devoid of any official announcements. Now farmers have pinned all their hopes on the High Court and Supreme Court. It has to be seen whether the YSRCP government will at least honour the verdicts of courts on capital.
