The farmers of the Amaravati villages on Monday held a protest in their villages as chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy laid the foundation stone for the weaker sections housing in the capital. The farmers have been opposing distribution of the capital lands for the weaker sections against the AP CRDA rules.

They have even gone to the supreme court from the high court against the state government’s decision to give house sites to 50,000 families from the weaker sections. The supreme court had dismissed their petition and upheld the state government’s decision.

Taking advantage of the supreme court order, the state government took another step and had worked out the plans to start construction of houses. Jagan Mohan Reddy laid the foundation stone for these houses and started distribution of house site pattas to the beneficiaries.

As the chief minister was laying the foundation stone, the farmers of Amaravati held a protest in Venkatapalem and Errubalem opposing the state government’s move. They held black flags against the programme and even released black balloons into the air to register their protest.

The farmers alleged that the chief minister was destroying Amaravati, which was decided by the previous government as the capital city of the state. They said that the previous government had taken their lands in pooling to build the capital, while the present government was destroying all those plans.

They also alleged that distribution of house site pattas and construction of houses for the weaker sections would not stand before the courts as it amounted to betrayal of the farmers. They asked the state government to fulfil the promises of the previous government and the conditions laid by the government in the CRDA rules to build Amaravati as the capital.