The Andhra Pradesh Government’s move to invoke the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act in about 10 villages in Guntur district, where farmers/land owners are unwilling to part with their holdings under the land pooling process, has triggered protests in the proposed capital development region.

The State’s move was announced through a notification late on Thursday.

3,800 acres sought The Government now proposes to acquire about 3,800 acres of land in ten villages, including Undavalli, Penumaka and Nidamuru, where there is resistance from farmers and owners to being part of the land pooling process.

While the Government has set out to pool in about 33,000 acres of land spread across 29 villages in the Guntur district, the process has been completed in over 25,000 acres and consent of farmers taken for pooling in another 5,000 acres.

With the master plan and seed capital plan ready, the Government initiated a process to acquire about 3,800 acres of land spread across 10 villages from farmers who had not given their consent thus far.

Through the notification, the District administration has decided to empower special deputy collectors to perform the functions of District Collectors, under Section 3 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013, read with provisions of the Andhra Pradesh State Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquistion, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Rules, 2014.

In one of the several cases that were filed in the Hyderabad High Court, a division bench had made it clear that farmers who do not want to part with land must be allowed to cultivate.

It also made it clear that any move to take over land must be based on due process of under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act. When the news of the Government’s move spread, villagers staged a ‘dharna’ before the AP Capital Area Region Development Authority, contending their livelihood would be taken away with this move.

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