Naidu firm on building a world class capital

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government will formulate guidelines for procuring required lands for the construction of new capital city between Vijayawada and Guntur in a week's time.

Instead of announcing a uniform compensatory package for all the farmers, who will give their lands for the construction of the capital, the government is planning to announce three different packages for land owners depending on the fertileness of their respective lands as well as their proximity to the proposed seat of power.

'We have segregated the farmers broadly into three categories. One, those farmers who have very fertile lands right on the banks of river Krishna.

Two, those whose lands are near the old highway. Three, those land owners whose lands are not high-yielding ones,' P Narayana, AP municipal administration minister, who is also member of the Cabinet sub-committee on land pooling, told reporters here.

Earlier, the ministerial panel on land pooling, which met here under the chairmanship of finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu here, arranged the demands of farmers, belonging to the villages that were identified for the new capital, in an orderly manner so as to prepare the guidelines for fixing compensatory package for these three types of land owners.

According to sources, as chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is understood to be firm on constructing a gigantic capital which, he wants, should eclipse Hyderabad in every aspect, including size and economic activity, the government wants to set up non-polluting industries in the capital region.

'This step would help the local farmers, who will give their lands to the capital to become entrepreneurs whereas agricultural labourers could find employment in these industries,' said a minister, who took part in the meeting.

Proving this, Narayana said that the government had decided to set up non-polluting industries such as IT, fabrication industries and other production units to generate economic activity around the capital city.

It is learnt that the ministerial panel has also decided to make some recommendations to the government on how to generate economic activity at the capital city to provide maximum employment for the agricultural labourers and other unskilled workers, who will lose their livelihood because of construction of buildings in agricultural lands that were earmarked for the capital city.

Emerging from the meeting, social welfare minister Ravela Kishore Babu said, 'Very soon the government will issue a notification fixing the boundaries for the capital region. In that notification, the government will also incorporate the guidelines for land pooling system through which land will be procured from farmers'.

According to him, a legal cell would be set up soon to exclusively oversee the activities of land procurement for the new capital. The ministerial panel sought the finance department's permission to create new posts for handling the day-to-day activities of the legal cell.

Meanwhile, Narayana said once Singapore government prepares the blueprint for the new capital, the State government would begin procuring required financial resources for executing the construction works of the capital.

'As the state government has been left with empty coffers after bifurcation of undivided AP, we are pinning all our hopes on the Central funds to construct the new capital city,' he said.