Two Years of Accomplishments
The innovative idea of land pooling for building an ultra-modern capital city for Andhra Pradesh has received admiring attention from across the country, riven by the contentious and volatile land acquisition issue.
The Bifurcated Andhra Pradesh was a state in search of a capital city. Given the sorry state of fiscal affairs, it was impossible for the state to acquire adequate land for the proposed capital. But it is in such difficult circumstances that true leaders come up with a win-win plan. The historic land pooling for the capital city of Amaravati from farmers, not surprisingly, has become the talking point across the country, where land acquisition has become a contentious and highly volatile issue. It is probably for the first time in the country’ s history that nearly 33,000 acres of fertile land was voluntarily given away by small as well as rich farmers for a public cause. While land acquisition has become a contentious and long-drawn out affair across the country, Andhra Pradesh was faced with another dilemma: The government had no money to pay compensation to farmers under acquisition.“ Necessity is the mother of invention and we were for forced to think out of the box. Land pooling was our answer, and I can proudly say we have achieved the impossible by involving people in capital building,” said a beaming Chief Minister. " Handing over our lands was not an easy thing. Our lives have been too tied with it to let go. But I was motivated by Chandrababu’ s Land Pooling Scheme and his commitment to build an ultra modern capital for the state. I now know that I am part of history, of a new beginning," said Bandla Paparao, an octogenarian of Ananthavaram, one of the villages falling under the capital region. The Capital Region Development Authority( CRDA) had notified 45, 625 acres, out of which 37,624.15 acres is patta land. After the notification on January 2015, Nelapadu was the first village from which the land pooling exercise was commenced. The villagers welcomed the CRDA officials with open arms and willingly gave their consent letters. The entire exercise of land pooling for the brand new capital was completed in 3 months. The unprecedented response from land owners left the observers surprised all the more because desperate attempts were made to instigate farmers against participating in the land pooling. What turned the tide was Chandrababu Naidu’ s novel scheme in which land owners were made stake holders in the development of an urban agglomeration, and even his critics admitted the plan worked out well.“ We started the land pooling process in January last year, and within a short time, have managed to convince local land owners to take part in the development process. It was a smooth sail, as 33, 811 acres were pooled within stipulated time," CRDA special commissioner, N Srikanth said.“ It was not just the compensation alone but the Chief Minister’ s impassioned call for becoming partners in progress that inspired us,” said Maineni Girija of Dondapadu village. She not only gave away 4 acres of her land that falls under notified area, but also volunteered to give another 3 acres in neighbouring village Vaddamanu, which is out of notified boundaries. " Hers is a case in example that farmers in the region were really fired by the idea of building a modern capital on their own soil," Tenali Sravan Kumar, local MLA representing Tadikonda constituency, told AP Bureau. However, the administration was careful in ensuring that the farmers of jareebu lands who harvested three crops a year did not feel their loss in comparison with dry-land farmers. The lands with irrigation facility spread across 10 river front villages got a better package. Rambabu, farmer from Thullur, says“ The package offered by the government is better than leasing out or holding the land for progeny. As a matter of fact, cost of our land appreciated more than 10 times after the announcement of capital here,” he said. With farmers happy with their compensation package, land pooling has turned into the first achievement of the Chandrababu Naidu government in its effort to build a world-class capital. Many leading commentators suggested that Naidu model to nation on land acquisition. Well-known business journalist Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar referred to the stalled projects across the country due to issues with land acquisition, and commended the Chief Minister of AP for successfully converting‘ a problem into a solution’. When the leader is honest in his purpose, the farmer will not baulk from his contribution. This has been proved in the case of Amaravati land pooling. v JUNE 2016 ANDHRAPRADESHMAGAZINE. ORG 13