Farmers meet VP; ask him to ensure no relocation of AP capital

Anguished farmers of Amaravati region, who have been agitating for a week now, met Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu here on Tuesday evening and urged him to ensure the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government did not go ahead with its plan to relocate Andhra Pradesh's capital.

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Separately, they sent letters by Speed Post to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in the matter and prevail upon the Andhra Pradesh government not to shift the state capital from Amaravati.

The farmers submitted a memorandum to the Vice-President, who was camping in his family's Swarna Bharat Trust near Gannavaram, and said their future would turn gloomy if the capital was shifted from Amaravati.

"We have voluntarily given up our fertile agricultural lands, where three crops are grown every year, for building the state capital after bifurcation. But now we are being pushed into ruin," the farmers lamented.

Maintaining that he could not speak publicly on the issue, the Vice-President sought to assure the aggrieved farmers that he would take it up with "those concerned".

"I understand your anguish. Nowhere in the country did farmers give up over 33,000 acres of land for a purpose," Venkaiah Naidu remarked.

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In their letter to the Prime Minister, the farmers said they had surrendered precious land spread over 29 villages in the region for the development of the capital.

Recalling that the Prime Minister himself laid the foundation stone for the capital development on October 22, 2015, the farmers sought "justice" from him.

Land is the only source of our livelihood and we have surrendered it to the government. The physical features of the land have been completely altered for the purpose of infrastructure development. The land is of no use to us now, unless the promised infrastructure is created and the capital city is developed as per the Master Plan, the ryots said.

Meanwhile, farmers took out a candle-light march in Tulluru and Velagapudi while another group held a torch rally in the Mangalagiri area, denouncing the state's move to shift the capital city to Visakhapatnam.

Women members from the farmers' families filed a complaint with Tulluru police that their MLA Undavalli Sridevi of the ruling YSR Congress from Tadikonda was "missing".

The MLA could not be found though farmers of the region have been agitating for the past one week against the move to shift the capital from Amaravati, they said.

A similar complaint was also filed against another YSRC MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, who represents Mangalagiri constituency that forms part of the core capital.

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Lawyers of the High Court Bar Association held their general body meeting on Tuesday and opposed the proposed shifting of the AP High Court to Kurnool in Rayalaseema region.

The lawyers decided to boycott courts on December 26 and 27 against the government's move. They alleged that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government was trying to hoodwink people in the naming of setting up High Court benches at Visakhapatnam and Amaravati.

The lawyers said they would extend all necessary help on pro bono basis to the capital region farmers in their legal fight against the relocation of the capital.