Land cannot be taken by force, Jagan assures farmers

Hyderabad, Jan 5: Assuring the affected farmers of the capital area that YSR Congress will stand by them and the fight it out at all available forums, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said that the TDP government has tuned up the governance on a mercantile scale.

Addressing the farmers who had come to the Party Office near Lotus Pond here'on Monday, the Leader of Opposition said: 'no force on the earth can take away your lands forcefully. We will be with you and fight for your cause. We will take it up at all the available forums and explore all options including moving the court and approaching the Human Rights Commission.

It is sad to note that the Government is using force and coercion to acquire land from farmers while Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said while brining in the CREDA Bill that the State will take land only from those farmers who are willing to part with.

Law and order situation was created a day ahead of the land acquisition with arson taking place in selective farms where the owners had refused to give up their land. With police entering the scene, the official machinery is being misused and farmers are being harassed and they are undergoing trauma as the coercion to sell their land continues. They are being asked to name YSRCP leaders as responsible for the arson.

We will not allow this to happen and will challenge any move that will threaten the farmers' interests. We will fight it out in courts, complain to Human Rights Commission as there is breach of human rights and will take up the issue, he assured the farmers who have come from Undavalli, Penumaka, Navuluru, Kolagallu, Nidamarru and other places.

The State Government has turned into a real estate merchant leaving governance to winds and has come up a Quixotic proposal of acquiring 50,000 acres of which half the land will be used for infrastructure development and giving to farmers 12,000 acres at the rate of 1,300 yards per acre and use the rest of 13,000 acres for commercial purpose.

This is not acceptable. In the first place land should be taken only if farmers are willing to give and commercial proposition is not the activity of government. It has to lay roads, zone it and leave it there for the farmers to decide as to what to do. There is forest land available at Vinukonda area which can be explored without troubling farmers whose holdings are fertile, he said.

Giving pittance to the farmers for the land and the State taking commercial ventures is not good governance and Chandrababu Naidu will be chief minister for another four years only while the process of development is a continuous process and YSRCP, after coming to power will do justice to all.

The farmers who had come from the capital area region had poured their cup of woes and said police have been harassing them and forcing them to name YSRCP leaders for the arson and creating terror by parading in the villages creating a reign of terror. We are not allowed to go out after dusk and police are selectively picking up locals.
All this started after the arson in the selective farmlands and State Home Minister and other TDP leaders accused YS Jagan Mohan Reddy of the incident. We shot back and questioned the leaders as to why should they blame our leader. This is the trigger for the harassment they said that they are being subjected to physical torture and mental trauma.

YS Jagan Mohan Reddy later met the Governor ESL Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan along with Party leaders and farmers and apprised him of the plight of the farmers in the capital region and urged him to intervene to bring justice to the affected parties and stall the State repression.

Meanwhile, the Party Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy and 22 others filed a complaint with the State Human Right Commission naming six police official of Guntur as respondents. The police have been harassing the farmers and are forcing them to name some YSRCP leaders responsible for the arson which took place in the fields of the capital region.