NELLORE: While defending the government in securing 33,000 acres from farmers for the capital, municipal administration minister P Narayana urged political parties not to provoke farmers for their political interests as it will lead to unrest among farmers with land rate in the area coming down drastically.
Speaking to mediapersons here on Friday, he asserted that farmers have voluntarily handed over their land to the government as they would get better benefits. Opposition parties should be aware of the difference between land acquisition and land pooling, he said.
Referring to the comments of actor Pawan Kalyan that 8,000 acres are enough for the construction of the capital, the minister said actually only 8,000 acres would be utilised for constructing the capital, while the remaining land would be used for developing infrastructure facilities around the capital city. Out of the total 33,000 acres, 8,000 acres would be be returned to the farmers after developing, he said, adding only a portion of the total land would actually be utilised for capital construction, while the remaining would be used for various public needs.
He announced that the government has decided to widen and deepen the Kavali canal for a length of 67.61 km at an estimated cost of `210 crore in a phased manner. A sum of `30 crore would be sanctioned for this purpose during the visit of chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu 8 to the district on Sunday, he said.
Narayana said after completion of the works, the ayacut under the canal would increase up to 1 lakh acres and farmers in the Kavali division would get sufficient water for agriculture. The renovation works would be completed by the end of 2016, he added.
The minister said concrete bunding would be done at Sangam replacing the present sand bag bund at an estimated cost of `40 crore.
Nellore mayor SK Abdul Aziz, joint collector Imtyaz Ahmad and others were present.