Land acquisition to develop promised infrastructure in the proposed new capital around Vijayawada is going to be a tough call for the Andhra Pradesh Government.
The main reason is the availability of Government land in 13 district headquarters is not only un-uniform but also scanty.
Data submitted by the district collectors to the Government last week gives a glimpse of the gulf between the tall promises made by the Chief Minister for every district in his speech announcing the intention to locate the new capital around Vijayawada, and the availability of land for the same.
The Government land available within a radius of 10 km from the district headquarters ranges from a meagre 80 acres in West Godavari to 6,728 acres in YSR Kadapa district. Even the Krishna district, which would host the new capital, has just 3,247 acres.
What is striking is the fact that there is more land available in Rayalaseema, including districts such as Kadapa, Chittoor, Kurnool and Ananthapur while the Krishna and coastal districts seem to be attracting more attention of the Government. A senior Government official agreed the first preference for the Government was to develop economic hubs near district capitals as most of them are better off than the interiors. “But the challenge is attracting investments in remote places where new infrastructure creation will take not less than three to four years. Available land near district centres would have to be prioritised for utilisation on the basis of the purpose as it is scanty,” he said.
Even if the Government hopes to acquire land, it is going to be too costly an affair to bear for a Government which is not in position to implement significant poll promises such as loan waiver to farmers due to financial constraints.
The Government is also working on issuing e-Passbooks to land owners in the State so that land belonging to a person and the compensation one would get could be digitised for transparency and easy-handling. It has already said that Aadhaar linkage should be made mandatory. But the question is will people come forward to declare all their assets to be digitised? Above all, the recent announcement by Deputy Chief Minister KE Krishna Murthy that higher values than market values would be offered in land acquisition, would complicate things for a cash-strapped State Government.