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The Andhra Pradesh Government should eschew the temptation to build ‘a big capital’ in competition with Hyderabad and at any rate agriculture should not be sacrificed on a large scale in that misplaced endeavour, according to speakers who participated in a meet organised by Jana Chaitanya Vedika in the public library here on Wednesday on the issue of the new capital.
Many of the speakers said the AP Government should not repeat the mistake of over-centralisation as it did in the past in the case of Hyderabad. Even if the capital came up in the Vijayawada-Guntur region, there was no justification for sacrificing as many as 30,000 acres of farm land for the purpose. Land acquisition should be minimised to the extent possible and there should not be any pressure on the farmers.
V Balamohana Das, former Vice-Chancellor of Acharya Nagarjuna University, said the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act should be implemented sincerely and there should not be any unhealthy competition between AP and Telangana. The AP Government should take the farmers into confidence in acquiring lands for the capital. In awarding contracts for the works in the capital, there should be transparency and they should be awarded on the basis of international bidding. A master plan would have to be prepared carefully.
Ch Narasinga Rao, member of the secretariat of the CPM, said there was much resistance from farmers in 29 villages from where land is proposed to be acquired. He said it was notable that they were all of the ruling Telugu Desam Party but even then the farmers were resisting. He expressed doubts over the land pooling system proposed by the State Government for land acquisition.
PV Narayana Rao, city president of the BJP, said till now the State Government had not sent any proposal to the Union Government. The Union Government would have the final say on the matter, he said.
Several other speakers urged the State Government to go slow on the issue and not to sacrifice the interests of farmers. The emphasis should be on decentralisation.
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