YSRC to give back lands collected for AP Capital: YS Jagan

Penumaka: YSRC president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy today assured that all the fertile lands taken away by the Chandrababu Naidu government in the name of new capital, will be returned to farmers when the party returned to power at the earliest.

Addressing a motley crowd of few hundreds at the Penumaka Village center, 10 kms from Vijayawada, in the shade of the life size statue of his father YS Rajasekhar Reddy standing few feet away, the YSRC Chief predicted the downfall of the Chandrababu Naidu government at the earliest. "It may a year or two or more, but the downfall of Chandrababu has commenced as he has angered the farmers, the annadata of the country in the same breath had done decade ago by denying them free power," Jagan said to cheering crowds.

Tenant farmers, farm labor, women and also farmers rallied around Jagan and also berated the Andhra Pradesh government and Chief Minister for his allegedly thoughtless act of taking away their lands, forcibly and denying them their livelihood options. "We cannot trust him as he never does anything he promises," said a women farmer and said that Naidu's trustworthiness has been displayed in the case of the farmers loan waiver. "He promised total loan waiver for farmers and Dawcra women, now he has pegged it down to only crop loans, up to Rs. 1.5 lakhs only," said Mastanamma a women farm laborer.

Jagan told the crowd that the Chandrababu Naidu government's tactics of taking away land with police force cannot sustain longer and that TDP has revealed its true colors of being farmer friendly. "How can farmers trust him when he took away their lands? asked Jagan to a cheering crowd.

This is the fourth round of campaign by the YSRC against the land acquisition for the new capital. Last week about 42 YSRC MLAs visited the villages and assured them of support. Mangalagiri MLA Rajasekhar Reddy had staged hunger fast for the farmers sake. This is the second visit of Jagan to the villages urging them to not part with their lands and to take it to the courts.

Ground reports show that the farmers had only given consent letters for nearly 33,000 acres and the government had eyed about 47,000 acres of land for the first phase of the construction for the new capital with Singapore drawings and Japanese investors. Nestled on the rich fertile soil between the heritage rich hillocks of Buddhist ear and the waterfront of Krishna river which had even attracted the attention of the BJP president Amit Shah, the vegetable and flower bowl of AP could soon become a concrete jungle if the writ of Chandrababu had its way.