Oppostion YSR Congress cried foul over the reported extension of seed capital area of Amaravati and alleged that it was the TDP supremo’s commercial interests, rather than the people’s interests, that are governing the construction of new capital.
Referring to the yesterdays meeting between state chief secretary SP Tucker and Khoo Teng Chye, executive director Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities, party MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy said state appears to be buckling under the pressure from the Singapore companies. According to YSRC spokesperson, state government had agreed to extend the area of Seed capital from the previously announced 8 km sq km to 20 sq km.
‘Initially the state had said that it would have tie-up with Singapore Government. But later it turned out to be a joint venture between the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) and two Singapore based private companies. Now, it appears that a deal is being hammered out on commercial lines much to the disadvantage of the farmers, who sacrificed their land and much to the benefit of the corporate,’ Ramakrishna Reddy alleged on Thursday.
According to Reddy, if 20 sq km seed capital were to be approved, about 15 to 20 villages, that fall in this seed capital zone would be at loss as no private activity would be allowed in this vast area.
“CRDA has already made it clear that that there would no private activity in the seed capital. The residents of these 20 villages will no option but to surrender their lands. Because, they can’t take up any construction work even on their own lands,” he said.
“Not only those who went to court but also those who voluntarily ‘sacrificed’ their lands will be set to suffer from the change of seed capital norm,” he said.
‘Our stand has been very clear since beginning. We are not against the capital city but we oppose the commercial interests of those in the government to take primacy in the construction of capital city. Extending the area of seed capital will only benefit private foreign companies and a favored few. It is a terrible loss to the farmers,’ he said.
