This Black Soil

Millstones, Milestones

• Land in 29 villages in Tullur, Tadepalli and Mangalagiri mandals of Guntur dis­t­r­ict to be pooled for building the capital city. The government plans to acq­u­ire 30,000 acres to build the capital spread over 121 sq km. This is bigger than either Guntur or Vijayawada.
• Land owners to get Rs 30,000 a year for loss of agricultural income in dry lands with Rs 3,000 increase per year, Rs 50,000 a year in jareeb (alluvial soil) lands with Rs 5,000 increase per year for 10 years.
• Some 120 varieties of crops grown on these fertile lands. Indeed, there is a plan to apply for a Guinness record for the immense biodiversity here.

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The Tullur mandal of Guntur district along the banks of the Krishna river is one of the most “agriculturally vibrant” areas of the state. Banana and sugarcane plantations nestle along maize fields, cotton stands ready for picking, farm workers busy themselves in cauliflower and turmeric fields. Closer to the river, guava and lime orchards lend a tang to the cool evening air. Fields here almost never wear a bare look. If a chilli crop has just been cleared, one will find roses and rajnigandha and jasmine flowering in a few weeks. This farming paradise is where Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu plans to build the new capital city of the state.

Is it any wonder then that a farmers’ uprising has started in the region against the “capital punishment” even as Naidu bulldozes ahead with his glitzy Sing­apore-style plan? The AP government is acquiring 30,000 acres of land in 29 villages of Guntur district for the capital. Under the ‘land pooling’ method advocated by the TDP government, farmers losing their land will be given 1,000 sq yards of residential land per acre and 200 sq yards of commercial land. In the more fertile areas like Tul­lur, close to the river Krishna, farmers will be given a 100 sq yards extra.  

But farmers in 12 villages of Tullur, Mangalagiri and Tadepalli mandals are refusing to part with their lands, questioning the wisdom of turning their lush, green agricultural zone into a concrete jungle. In Rayapudi village alone, which has close to 6,000 acres under cultivat­ion, farmers are seething in rage. Sam­basiva Rao, who owns four-and-a-half acres, says Naidu’s packages are “completely hollow”. “We grow crops 365 days a year here and lead prosperous lives. The black soil here is thanks to decades of alluvial deposits from the river Krishna. We just have to dig 20 feet to get groundwater for irrigation. Why would we want to give all this up for a hi-tech capital on the promise of an annual income of Rs 50,000?” he asks.

A majority of families in the villages of Rayapudi, Borupalem, Lingayapalem, Udd­andarayunipalem, Abbarajupalem, Venkatapalem, Velagapudi, Mand­a­dam, Malkapuram, Penurmaka, Tall­a­ya­palem, Nidamorru, Undavalli, Errabalem, Kur­a­gallu etc watch in fear as ruling TDP leaders and ministers drive in regularly to ask the farmers to accept the land poo­ling plan as it’s “for their own good”.

“If it’s not politicians, it’s the real estate sharks hounding the villagers,” says Har­endranath Chowdary, a farmer with 28 acres in Tullur mandal. Chowdary has been organising the protesting farmers. “The state government is uprooting farmers who have lived here for over 60 years and have contributed much to the nation’s food security. We welcome a capital in our area but why does the government need 30,000 acres?” he asks.

The farmers who grow 3-4 crops, cotton, chilli, corn and rice, are the ones primarily resisting the land pooling. The other rain-dependent ones, who grow only one main crop a year, are more malleable to the Rs 30,000 per annum for an acre compensation. “What I want to know is why Naidu wants to replicate an urban Singapore on such bountiful soil along the Krishna? Farmers in Prakasam district with its barren soil were readily willing to give their lands. So why zoom in on us?” wonders Harendranath.

In Lingayapalem, Madala Seshagiri Rao says Naidu who begged farmers for forgiveness before the elections has gone back to his old tricks of hoodwinking them. “When there is so much confusion about the crop loan waiver itself, how can we trust Naidu anymore? Why sho­uld I give my lands for some urban proj­ect in which I’ll have little role to play?” he asks. Seshagiri makes a decent living now with his three acres. His son studies in Hyderabad, daughter in Tamil Nadu, all with his agricultural income alone.

Every day he takes his produce, which currently includes vegetables, lemons, bananas, corn and flowers, to the buzzing market in Rayapudi to sell. It is estimated that the multi-crop lands in these 12 villages within two km of the Krishna amount to around 10,000 acres. Overall, a population of about one lakh depend on agriculture for their livelihood directly and indirectly in the 29 villages.

A committee of the National Alliance of People’s Movements headed by former administrator of the Chandigarh Capital Project, M.G. Deva­sahayam, visited 15 affected villages in the Tullur, Mang­ala­giri and Tadepalli mandals on December 5-6. It deduced that a very disturbing game of real estate, speculation and land sales had been unleashed there. “The villages have a vibrant agricultural economy of Rs 1,000 crore a year with complete linkages from farm to market and rich diversity of 120 crops. Drastic urbanisation will have an adverse impact on the food security of the state,” it reported.

B. Ramakrishnam Raju of NAPM says land pooling usually happens in a limited area of 400-500 acres. “This is the first time in the country that a government wants thousands of acres under the land pooling system. If on the same land, there had been an industrial belt, Naidu would never have been able to take it over. It is only because voiceless peasants are farming here that IT-crazy Naidu is running havoc,” says Ramakrishnam.            

Earlier, the Sivaramakrishnan Com­m­i­ttee in its report had advised against locating the capital between Vijayawada-Guntur, saying it would compromise some of the best agricultural lands in the country. Ex-agricu­lture minister and TDP leader Vadde Sobhanadreeswara Rao says Naidu who is already dogged by a Rs 16,000-crore deficit budget “is acting as if building a Singapore-like capital is the only agenda of his government”.

He estimates that a capital complex consisting of a high court, Raj Bhavan, assembly, secretariat and the residential quarters, offices of departments and the like will take about 700 acres only. Sobhanadreeswara  cites the example of Naya Raipur which was built on 750 acres or the core capital area of Jharkhand which is on 2,300 acres. “Or in South Korea, the smart city of Eun-Pycongu is just built on 862 acres and has 55,000 people residing. Naidu is simply allowing Singapore developers to take over farmers’ lands...it just leaves a bad taste,” says the veteran leader who feels the “capital city scam” will be the biggest of them all. Sobhanadreeswara feels Naidu should focus more on development programmes in the districts, education, completion of irrigation projects and minor ports like Bhavanipatnam, Machilipatnam and Nizampatnam.

Of course, there are villages like  Sek­ha­m­uru, Ainavolu and Dondapadu where farmers who have struggled with growing even one crop in their rain-fed lands, are happy with the land pooling. It helps that prices of their lands have risen to Rs 1.3 crore an acre overnight. Some with larger holdings have sold par­­tly, others are holding on. Pusuluri Murali of Sek­hamuru village says he will not sell his land and instead will give it to the land pool. “That way, I too will have 1,200 sq yards in the new capital,” says Murali.   

In Borupalem, the villagers are divided according to the soil. The ones with red soil and no groundwater are readily offering their lands but the ones closer to the Krishna, where the soil is fertile, are in no mood to do so. A sharecropper here, J. Subba Rao, says Naidu was the one cried himself hoarse during the state bifurcation saying people’s sentiments were being ignored. “But now what about the sentiments of us farmers, why is he forcing us to give up land for the rajadhani?” he asks with trembling lips.

A team of the Human Rights Forum which visited the villages feels that Naidu is resorting to land pooling bec­a­use the CM would otherwise have to ens­ure every stakeholder in the agricultural economy his/her rights if it were to implement the Right to Fair Comp­ens­a­tion and Transparency in Land Acquis­it­ion, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. “The Singapore spin Naidu is giving is a corporate-driven agenda which can­cels out the fundamental rights of farmers, tenant farmers and landless labourers in what is a vibrant agricultural economy,” says HRF general secretary V.S. Krishna. He insists the government is yet to conduct a social impact assessment in Tullur and other mandals. He wonders why the state needs a super capital when there are adjoining cities like Guntur, Vijayawada and Mangalagiri.

For the government, municipal administration minister P. Narayana, who is part of the Capital Region Devel­opment Auth­ority, says land pooling is the best way out to acquire the 30,000 acres needed in the Vijayawada-Guntur reg­ion. Members of the Naidu cabinet visi­ted Naya Raipur, Gandhinagar and Chandigarh to study land pooling. “We will invoke the Land Acquisition Act only as a last resort. For the AP government, land pooling is not a commercial operation, but a responsibility,” he says.

Not everyone is enthused. Former IICT chief scientist K. Babu Rao calls the Sin­gapore dream an “ecological catastrophe”. “Such an enormous scale of land-use conversion for urbanisation will lead to drastic climate change and increased emissions. A city on the upper reaches of the Krishna will destroy the river and make the Krishna-Godavari reg­ion prone to flooding. The Hudhud cyclone should have been a lesson,” he says.

The local TDP leaders are doing their bit to boost the capital plan. In Dondapadu village, banners showcasing Naidu as god’s avatar and “saviour of the land” have made an appearance. Back in Raya­p­udi, Jaani Basha, wife Nisa and mother Noor Jahan cut cauliflowers in their two-acre field. The family’s been far­m­ing here for 40 years and for them Nai­du’s no god nor are his plans divine. Pointing to his small house in the midst of the field, Basha says, “This is my jannat (heaven) and no one is going to take it from me.”

By Madhavi Tata in Guntur