A Ravan for every Lanka

Leaders of TDP have laid their eye on the assigned and the lanka lands of the capital area of AP and are acting swiftly in order to pocket them, misusing their power at every possible step. They evaded the lanka lands from acquisition by the Government. They scared the poor by spreading rumours that the lands would be grabbed by the Government without paying any compensation. The farmers, cornered by panic, gave away their lands to the awaiting yellow eagles at a price of Rs.5 lakh to Rs.35 lakh. Once this robbery was accomplished, the Government announced that lanka lands were being acquired in exchange of compensation.

Mention Skipped from Notification

There are 13 lankas in 29 villages of the capital area. In them, 574.93 acres are assigned lands while 1584.24 acres are lanka lands. The Government distributed the total 2159.17 acres in parts of 77 cents to 1 acre of land to poor dalit farmers from 1954 to 1976. Those farmers have been cultivating these lands for a living since then. The Government issued orders on the 1^st of January 2015 for the acquisition of lands in the 29 villages. In these orders, acquisition of pattaa lands and assigned lands was specifically mentioned but not that of lanka lands, as ensured by Chandrababu.

Vultures in Lankas

At the time of acquisition of lands in the capital area, ministers P.Narayana, Prathipati Pullarao and Devineni Uma Maheshwar Rao camped in the villages for 3 months to obtain the information regarding lanka lands. Then they informed their followers about the lack of mention of lanka lands in the Government orders and notification while instructing them to terrify the benefiters of the lands by spreading false rumours regarding the Government not paying compensation for the acquired lands. Cornered by fear of failure to exist once their lands have been acquired, the farmers got ready to sell their lands. Upon knowing this from their followers, the ministers brought real estate brokers into picture, each of whom then bought lands in each lanka.

It is known from the dalit farmers of the respective villages that CM’s son Lokesh and minister Prathipati bought lands in Uddandarayunipalem and Lingayapalem, minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao bought them in Tallayapalem and Venkatapalem lankas, minister Narayana got them in Rayapudi lanka, Hindupuram MLA and his relatives procured lands in Mandadam and Undavalli lankas. Minister Prathipati Pullarao alone bought 96.4 acres of lanka lands with the name of his binami Gummadi Suresh. From this, only the 1.01 acres of land bought in Venkatapalem lanka was registered in Mangalagiri’s sub-registration office. As the registrars denied to register the rest of the lands, agreements were made in their benefit. The rest of the ministers also made only agreements with the sellers of the lands. It is noteworthy that the yellow eagles who grabbed the lanka lands attained possession of the pass books and Government’s assignment documents from the poor dalit farmers.

Deception of worth Rs.2500 crore

After the purchase of lands by Babu’s son Lokesh and TDP leaders, notification was issued on the 6^th of December for the first shift acquisition of 1093 acres in 6 lankas of Rayapudi area and 162.50 acres in Undavalli lanka. But the namesake notification did not mention any survey numbers in order to stop the exposure of the robbery performed by the TDP leaders. CRDA officials specify that this was against regulations. As the Government accepted to acquire lanka lands, each acre is worth Rs.1.75 crore.

Recently CM Chandrababu ordered CCL officials to amend the law in the benefit of the purchasing TDP leaders rather than the original benefiters, thus giving his son Lokesh and other accomplices ownership and rights to lands of Rs.2500 crore worth.