AP Promises Compensation to Farmers

HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday informed the Hyderabad High Court that it will compensate farmers, whose land is being acquired for the Polavaram irrigation project, under the provisions of the new Land Acquisition Act.

AP Advocate General P Venugopal informed this to a division bench of Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice A Shankar Narayana which was dealing with a batch of petitions filed by scores of farmers from West Godavari and Krishna districts challenging the land acquisition proceedings of the State government.

The bench sought to know from the petitioners’ counsel MV Durga Prasad the response of the farmers to the state government’s proposal. In turn, the counsel sought to know from the AG as to which market value the government has taken as basis for compensation and whether it included multiplier effect and rehabilitation benefits etc. “If these details are furnished to me, I shall consult the farmers and inform their opinion to the court”, he said. The bench posted the case to Thursday for further hearing.