Tullur basking under Capital glory - TeluguPeople.com News

TULLUR (GUNTUR): Some farmers in Tullur mandal, Guntur district, are flush with money, thanks to the AP capital city project. With prices of their land holdings sky-rocketing after the government's announcement that the State's greenfield capital will come up here, some farmers have been disposing off part of their lands to book swanky cars while youth are going crazy about high speed bikes.

As you take a right turn at Undavalli and head towards Amaravathi, hoardings of real estate companies greet you. In fact, the villages that dot the road from Undavalli are these days brainstorming over whether the prices have peaked out or there is still room for an upsurge.

Land registrations are taking place, but not at a hectic pace. Some farmers are selling part of their lands in the farther end of the Krishna river bank where irrigation facilities are poor.

Till the government announced the capital, there were no takers for these lands ' they were not even worth Rs 20 lakh-Rs 25 lakh per acre.But the situation has changed dramatically overnight.

The prices have touched Rs 1.5 crore per acre. 'Some farmers have hired cash counting machines as counting notes manually for huge amounts is difficult,' a farmer Sambasiva Rao said.

'Not all farmers are selling lands because they do not want to lose their livelihood. But some are being tempted,' M Harenderanath Chowdary, a farmer who has 30 acres in Rayapudi village said. 'I heard that about 500 acres has been sold in 21 villages,' he added.

At Tullur mandal headquarters, it is hard to miss the capital talk. Some farmers were seen making enquiries at a temporary camp set up by automobile dealers at the village centre.

'We have opened the camp on Sunday. In just three days, we have sold four Tata Safaris and Zests. We want to continue the camp... if we are able to book one car a day... for a village of this size, it is quite good,' customer adviser at the camp M Narasimha Rao said.

According to him, farmers in the village are flush with money and some more farmers are willing to part with their land. Similarly in several villages, two-wheeler companies have set up temporary camps to sell new generation bikes.

Farmers who own lands at the farther end of Krishna river bank say it appears to be the right time for them to make some money. There is uncertainty about how the land is going to be acquired by the government. 'In these circumstances, if the price is good, there is nothing wrong in selling away a part of the land,' a farmer Srinivasa Rao in Tullur pointed out.

Allotment of land in commercial clusters and govt job are among AP CM Naidu's boons to farmers in return for their consent to part with their lands for AP capital.

The promises were made during an interaction between Naidu and the farmers in Hyderabad Tuesday. However, the meet turned out to be Naidu's get-together with TDP workers as dissenting farmers were not brought to the interaction.