Amaravati farmers have been opposing the creation of the R5 zone and sought direction preventing the distribution of the land to the poor.
GO 1 permits the police to restrict the conduct of public meetings on roads and other forms of demonstrations. (Creative Commons)
As the YSRCP government appears set to issue house site pattas in the R5 zone in the capital region to poor beneficiaries from Vijayawada and Guntur, Amaravati’s farmers have decided to file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s directive, which cleared the decks for the government.
The decision to appeal was taken after the farmers’ Joint Action Committee (JAC) consulted legal experts on Saturday, 6 May.
The JAC leaders insist that the distribution of the land in the area in question to beneficiaries was not proper as the land — surrendered by them for the state-of-the art capital promised by the previous TDP government — was meant for setting up industrial and commercial establishments.
After the high court dismissed the farmers’ plea for a direction against issuing house site pattas on Friday, the state government has begun making preparations for the big event, which is expected to help the party in the elections next year.
The farmers’ petitions sought the annulment of Government Order (GO) No 45, issued for the distribution of the house site pattas.
The state government has already released ₹20 crore for this purpose and it is expected to release another ₹30 crore soon for making layouts and removal of boulders and bushes from the area.
The lands are located in Mandadam, Inavolu, Mangalgiri, Krishnayapalem, Nidamarru, and Kuragallu.
The farmers claimed that these were part of the lands that farmers in 29 villages had surrendered to the erstwhile TDP government for the construction of the capital city of Amaravati in return for developed commercial and residential plots.
But the government argued that the lands in question were not part of those given under the land pooling scheme to the then-ruling government.
The government of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has also jettisoned the TDP plan for a single capital in favour of a decentralised three-capitals plan. Under this, Amaravati will just be the legislative capital, while Visakhapatnam will be the executive capital and Kurnool and the judicial capital.
According to sources, the high court order has cleared the way for the AP Capital Region Development Authority to distribute 1,134 acres of land to about 48,218 beneficiaries in accordance with GO No 45.
The government has made 21 layouts for the distribution of pattas. The land is being levelled for marking. The plots, according to the government, were being readied in a picturesque setting.
The YSRC government, in March, issued orders categorising 900.97 acres of .land in Krishnayapalem, Nidamarru, Kuragallu, Mandadam and Inavolu as the R5 zone. Along with this, 233.61 acres of land in the S3 zone was also clubbed with the R5 zone.
Of the total land of 1,134.58 acres, as much as 550,65 acres will go to beneficiaries in Guntur district and the remaining 583.93 acres to those in Vijayawada (NTR district). Of these, 10 layouts were meant for beneficiaries in the Guntur district, while 11 layouts were for those in NTR district.
The government is contemplating distributing pattas as early as possible, apparently with an intention to strike a pre-emptive blow to the farmers who might entertain the idea of knocking on the doors of the Supreme Court.
Advisor to the Andhra Pradesh government Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy described the high court order as a slap on the faces of those who moved the court with unreasonable demands.
He said that it was inhuman to say that the poor cannot live in Amaravati.
“We will distribute house pattas as early as possible,” he added.
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