Capital construction: Ryots to get 40% of developed land

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government has tentatively decided to give 40 per cent of the developed land, under land pooling system, to farmers in lieu of the real estate they would part with for building the new capital city of the state.

Apart from giving back 40 per cent of the developed land to farmers, the government also wants to pay Rs 25,000 compensation per annum for each acre of land for a period of 10 years.

Farmers, who give away their lands to the government for the new capital, can also enjoy the facility of waiver of stamp duty if they buy land anywhere across the state after surrendering their lands to the government.

For those farmers, who surrender 'assigned lands' which are being cultivated by them, to the government for the construction of the new capital, the government will give back 30 per cent of the developed land.

During the two-hour meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on land pooling with chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, held here, it was also decided to procure 30,000 acres of land from farmers under land-poling system in the first phase.

The state government, which had earlier decided to procure one lakh acres of land for the construction of the new capital, wants to obtain this entire land in a phased manner from the farmers.

Emerging from the meeting, IT minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy told reporters that the GoM on land pooling, headed by finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, would tour Krishna and Guntur districts from Oct 17 to 19 to elicit the views of the local farmers to formulate a formula on land pooling system.

'Our first priority is to know the views of local farmers on land acquisition for the capital as the government wants to acquire land through land pooling.

During our visit, we shall also find out how much government land is readily available in the Vijayawada-Guntur region for construction of the capital,' he said.

Reddy further remarked that the state government wants to provide a better offer to the farmers who come forward to part with land for the new capital.

'After interacting with local farmers, we shall finalise the best suitable model to them. For now, we have decided to give back 40 per cent of the land to farmers after developing it,' he added.

The minister further disclosed that while constructing the capital, chief minister Naidu wants to borrow the best models from various cities across the world.

'CM Naidu has been going through various designs to construct a world-class capital city for AP. He has begun holding discussions with various international consultants over this. Very soon, the government will pick up an able architect to design the new capital city,' said.

'Capital in Guntur-V'wada Region' IT minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy said the new capital would come up between Vijayawada and Guntur cities.