Naidu marks boundaries in Guntur for AP's new capital

Asserts that farmers will greatly benefit by parting with their land

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday defined the boundaries for the state’s new capital on the Krishna Riverfront in Guntur district and sought to allay the fears of farmers whose land falls in the area.

With the common capital of Hyderabad set to go to Telangana in ten years, Naidu held a meeting with members of his Cabinet subcommittee at his Banajara Hills residence to discuss land acquisition for the construction of Andhra Pradesh’s new capital.

The chief minister addressed a press conference later, where he asserted that villages that fall under the boundaries of the future capital will benefit greatly by volunteering their land.

 “I will see to it that farmers who part with their land for the construction of this world class capital benefit in many ways,” Naidu said, and added that opposition partiers were misguiding people.

Putting and end to speculation by defining the boundaries, he said: “The new capital will extend 10.5 km from Guntur Autonagar in the east to Prakasam barrage, from Borupalem in the west to Prakasam barrage and in the south from Autonagar Y Junction to the 75 km Ring road, covering almost 16 kilometers.”

The chief minister also promised that he would stop unscrupulous realtors from cheating farmers in the villages around the Mangalagiri and Tullur mandals, which form the core of the capital.

The cabinet subcommittee, comprising Municipal Minister P Narayana, Agriculture Minister P Pulla Rao, Irrigation Minister Devineni Umamaheswar Rao and Tadikonda MLA Shravan Kumar, will begin their tour to the two mandals on Tuesday.

They will explain to farmers the mode of land acquisition and try to convince those in five villages, including Venkatayapalem and Rayapudi on the river front, who have decided not to contribute, to part with their land for the development of the capital.
For each acre of their land, farmers of these five villages are demanding 1,200 square yards of residential land, 200 square yards in the commercial zone and employment for one eligible person.

Other demands were complete liquidity and legal sanctity in transfer documents, alternative sources of revenue for temples in case of endowment land, higher price for land near highways and village-wise meetings before a final decision is taken.