VIZIANAGARAM: YSR Congress president and Opposition leader in the Assembly YS Jagan Mohan Reddy derided the state government’s proposal to acquire 15,000 acre for construction of an international airport at Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram district. He alleged that the TDP government was donning the role of a real estate company and ruining the livelihood of farmers in the name of development, despite their opposition to the pro-posal.
During his visit to Vizianagaram for a private function Wednesday, Jagan stated that the commercial agenda of the TDP government had once again come to the fore with its proposal to acquire 15,000 acres of land at Bhogapuram to jack up the real estate prices at the cost of the fertile land of farmers. “It is irrational on the part of the state government to announce the proposal to acquire 15,000 acre to develop the international airport without considering the feasibility of developing the existing airport in Visakhapatnam,” he said.
The Opposition leader pointed out that no international airport in the country was developed on such a large extent of land and the acquisition would adversely affect the farmers in the region. “The Chennai international airport was built on an extent 1,223 acre, Mumbai on 2,000 acre and Cochin airport on 800 acre,” he added.
The farmers are already in trouble as they got a raw deal in the loan waiver scheme and the amount released is not even matching the interest accrued and such moves will further push the farmers into a state of despair, he said.