YSR Congress president and leader of Opposition in Andhra Pradesh Assembly YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Tuesday launched an offensive against Chandrababu Naidu Government on the issue of procurement of land for building a new capital in Guntur District.
Jagan who launched his “Bharosa Yatra” to reassure farmers facing the threat of losing their lands in parts of Guntur District on Tuesday, declared that “every acre of land taken over by Naidu Government unnecessarily” will be returned to farmers when his party comes to power in the State.
Jagan who started his tour from Undavali went around several villages in Thullur and other surrounding mandals addressing the farmers and the farm laborers. “At nearby Venukonda we have 18,000 acres of forest land but instead of going there Chandrababu Naidu Government is bent upon forcibly snatching gold like fertile land which is giving three crops a year”, Jagan said.
He criticised Chandababu for turning deaf to the sufferings of farmers and farm labourers whose livelihood was endangered because of acquisition of land. “It is incomprehensible how the Government was planning to build a Singapore on fertile land which is feeding the people and giving livelihood to so many farmers”, he asked.
Jagan promised to return every acre of land forcibly taken away by the Government.State Government has procured more than 32,000 acres of land in around Thullur under land pooling policy. But it was facing resistance in 29 other villages where farmers, many of them belonging to ruling TDP have refused to surrender their lands as they were river facing and very fertile.
Film actor and Jana Sena Party founder president Pavan Kalyan was also scheduled to visit the capital region around Thullur on Thursday and meet the affected farmers.
Meanwhile, ruling Telugu Desam party launched a counter attack on Jaganmohan Reddy. AP Minister for irrigation D Umamaheshwara Rao questioned Jagan whether he was opposed to build the new capital for Andhra Pradesh.
He said Jagan who was facing charges of criminal offence, whose property was attached by Enforcement Directorate and was likely to go to jail had no moral right to criticise Chandrababu Naidu.
He reminded Jagan that during his father YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s regime, Government had forcibly acquired lands from farmers and police had opened fire at Somapeta on farmers protesting against land acquisition.