VIJAYAWADA : Farmers of Penumaka and Undavalli, the two capital city villages abutting Krishna River near Prakasam Barrage, have yet again taken to agitation path with the State government issuing land acquisition notification for one and contemplating to issue it for the other in a couple of days.
On Thursday morning, around thirty farmers of Penumaka village came to CRDA office in the village carrying bags of different vegetables including bottle gourd, tindora, drumstick, yam, turmeric and banana. They dumped the vegetables on the road in front of the CRDA office.
They carried placards and banners with slogans ‘Stop forced land acquisition’, ‘Do not snatch lands’, ‘Do not hurt farmers, who provide food to you’ etc.
“Majority of the farmers in the village are small and marginal farmers with small land holdings. For the last two and half years, we are spending sleepless nights. We have refused to give our land under land pooling scheme and refused to budge in the meetings for social impact assessment, but the government went ahead and issued land acquisition notification, in spite of our objections,” Nareshreddy, a farmer leading the protest in Penumaka said before submitting a memorandum to CRDA officials.
“We made it clear to officials that we will not give our lands at any cost,” Naresh said. “If justice eludes us in the High Court, then we will not hesitate to approach the Supreme Court,” he said.
Meanwhile, farmers in the neighbouring Undavalli, sporting black badges, staged a protest demonstration at CRDA office in that village. They demanded to know how CRDA is contemplating to issue the land notification, without even conducting experts committee meeting.