Hindupur: All-party meet vows to fight for return of lands

Hindupur (SathyaSai district): An all-party meeting held here formed 'Rythula Parirakshana Vedika' to fight for return of Lepakshi Knowledge Hub (LKH) farm lands acquired from farmers to an extent of 10,000 acre in Lepakshi mandal during the years 2004-09 when late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister.

The oustees of the Lepakshi Knowledge Hub projects rallied around the all-party committee leaders to demand the government to return their lands to them as the project did not see the light of the day.

TDP senior leaders Kalava Srinivasulu, B K Parthasaradhi, Nimmala Kistappa, CPI state committee member Jagadesh and Rythu Sangam state leader Venkatrami Reddy who spoke on the occasion vowed to fight on the lines of West Bengal leaders who fought successfully for restoration of farm lands to farmers in the past.

The leaders accused the then chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and the current Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy of jointly engineering the knowledge hub land scam and even looting hundreds of crores of rupees taken as loans from banks by mortgaging the lands. Most of the farm lands are now locked up in legal battles. The farmers who attended the meeting questioned the wisdom of government by acquiring farmlands for establishing industries. The government has now the responsibility of taking back the 10,000 acre acquired for the projects. The leaders promised to take back the lands from the government and return them to the oustees.

CPI leader Imtiaz demanded that the government which acquired lands for establishing industries is duty bound to return the lands to farmers if the latter goes back on its word and could not use the lands for the purpose for which they were acquired. Ex-MP Parthasaradhi promised to farmers that they would fight the government to ensure lands are returned to farmers.