The cabinet reportedly decided that the cabinet subcommittee should have wide-ranging talks with all the stakeholders before firming up a decision on additional land acquisition.
Published Jul 10, 2025 | 1:18 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 10, 2025 | 1:55 PM
Amaravati capital city design by previous TDP government. (Supplied)
Synopsis: The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet has decided to defer a decision on the CRDA proposal to acquire an additional 20,494 acres of land in the Amaravati region. It was put on hold after Jana Sena, probably for the first time, took a line different from the TDP.
The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet, which met at the State Secretariat in Velagapudi near Vijayawada on Wednesday, 9 July, is understood to have decided to defer a decision on the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) proposal to acquire an additional 20,494 acres of land in the Amaravati region. The land was intended for the construction of an ultra-modern international airport, among others.
The cabinet, which met with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the chair, decided to refer the matter to a yet-to-be-constituted cabinet subcommittee to hold talks with farmers, to allay their fears before the acquisition of additional land.
The proposal for the additional acquisition of land was put on hold after Jana Sena, probably for the first time, took a line different from the TDP. Even though it was not seen as friction between Jana Sena and TDP, it was, however, an expression of dissent by the NDA’s junior partner.
The cabinet reportedly decided that the cabinet subcommittee should have wide-ranging talks with all the stakeholders before firming up a decision on additional land acquisition. The cabinet subcommittee is also expected to explain and convince the farmers of the need to acquire fresh land.
According to reliable sources, Civil Supplies Minister Nadendla Manohar, who is the second most important person in Jana Sena, raised objections to the acquisition of additional land for Amaravati when the issue came up for discussion in the cabinet.
As Manohar was narrating the fears of the farmers, Jana Sena chief and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan reportedly intervened, voicing similar concerns.
He seemed to have found it odd that the TDP ministers were making statements about the acquisition of additional land without consulting Jana Sena, a major alliance partner.
When Pawan Kalyan began expressing displeasure over the goings-on in the government, Naidu— who was till then thinking that acquisition of land was a fait accompli — decided not to hurt his Jana Sena colleagues and decided to refer it to a cabinet subcommittee.
The chief minister was reportedly taken aback when Jana Sena wanted a review of the proposal to acquire the land in the wake of opposition from farmers.
Initially, Manohar conveyed the concerns of the farmers whose lands are proposed to be acquired under land pooling and how they were worried that their fate would turn out to be similar to those who gave land for Phase I. They also referred to how their colleagues had suffered following the change of government.
After the TDP-led NDA government took over, it was with great effort that it could clear the bushes and shrubs that had grown in the Amaravati area during 2019-2024 under YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s reign, spending a whopping ₹30 crore.
Manohar brought to the notice of the cabinet that he was receiving representations from farmers expressing concern over the proposal to acquire their lands under Phase II.
He said they were asking him for an explanation regarding the state government’s plan of additional land acquisition, when it could not settle the issue with those who gave their land for Phase I.
The farmers had given 34,000 acres under land pooling for Phase I in 2015 after the TDP came to power a year before. The problems of the farmers who gave their lands began when the state government could not keep its promise of allotting them “returnable plots” instead of the lands taken under land pooling.
In 2019, the YSRCP came to power and put the Amaravati project on the back burner. There was not even an inch of progress in the Amaravati project, and, on top of that, the then-chief minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, gave a push to his three-capital concept: Executive capital in Visakhapatnam, legislative capital in Amaravati, and judicial capital in Kurnool.
After the TDP, in alliance with the Jana Sena and BJP, returned to power in 2024, the Amaravati project acquired momentum. For about 10 years, the Amaravati farmers could not get anything in return except the annuity payable by the government between 2014–16.
Even now, after firmly being in the saddle, the Amaravati project has yet to take off, since most of the constructions in the region are still in early stages of execution or are yet to be grounded.
The TDP government, after staging a dramatic comeback in 2024, decided to acquire more land for Amaravati. Initially, the TDP contemplated taking about 40,000 acres of additional land, but later halved it to 20,494 acres, mainly for constructing a modern international airport.
Already, there is one international airport at Gannavaram, which is about 41 km from Amaravati, and yet the state wants to have a bigger and modern airport, which could even accommodate wide-bodied aircraft, as it expects huge investments to flow into Amaravati.
However, the farmers got panicked ever since subtle hints were dropped — first by TDP legislators and then Minister P Narayana himself — that the government was looking forward to the acquisition of additional land. It is when opposition to the move began gathering momentum, even from its NDA partner, Jana Sena.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
