Hyderabad: Even as the Telugu Desam government was facing the ire of the farmers over pooling of land in Guntur district for building a new capital of Andhra Pradesh, popular actor and Jana Sena party founder Pavan Kalyan announced his plans to visit the proposed capital region to talk to the affected communities.
The actor, who met the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu yesterday to discuss the land acquisition issue among other things, took to social media to announce his visit to the area on March 5.
“On 5th March I will be visiting the capital region of Andhra Pradesh and will meet all the affected farmers and communities to hear them”, he said.
Though the state government was able to take over more than 32100 acres of land through land pooling schemes offering a generous package of compensation and alternative lands, several more farmers were up in the arms against the scheme.
The government was facing resistance from the farming communities in many villages specially on the banks of river Krishna.
Though Pavan Kalyan appeared to be taking a sympathetic position towards the farmers, Chandrababu Naidu urged him to persuade the farmers to part with their lands in the larger interest of the state.
The government was also facing challenge from the main opposition YSR Congress party whose leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy was scheduled to visit the area on Tuesday. Party leader Rambabu alleged that the government’s attempts to take over the land will spell disaster for the farmers, tenant farmers and farm workers.
Meanwhile the state minister for municipal administration P Narayana expressed his satisfaction over the procurement of land and said that the stage was now set for laying foundation stone of the new capital in the third week of May. “We will complete the first stage of the new capital by June 7, 2018,” he told reporters.
