VIJAYAWADA: After announcing that it would acquire 1.05 lakh acres to develop a deep water port and an industrial corridor at Machilipatnam, the state government beat a hasty retreat late Friday night, and 'clarified' that only 22,000 acres would be taken. After the cabinet meeting on Friday, information and public relations minister Palle Raghunath Reddy told media persons that it had been decided by the cabinet to acquire 1.05 lakh acres from Machilipatnam farmers and that the Land pooling Scheme (LPS) implemented for the acquisition of land for the Amaravati capital project would be made applicable. Only, the Machilipatnam farmers would not be eligible for annuity payment. Late in the night, however, the government sent a one-line clarification that the land to be acquired was only 22,000 acres.
There seemed to have been a realization in the government that any decision to acquire 1.05 lakh acres of land for the Machilipatnam port would land it in hot water waters.
After the cabinet briefing, according to reliable sources, the chief minister got angry with minister Raghunatha Reddy for announcing the exent of acquisition as it might trigger another controversy and paint a picture that the state government is anti-farmer.
The chief minister reportedly vented his ire at the minister for making an official announcement of the decision and wanted damage control done immediately. After this, the Information and Public Relations Department sent a clarification to media persons late in the night.
While briefing media persons earlier in the afternoon, Raghunatha Reddy had been categorical that the state government intended to acquire more than one lakh acres and that that much land was required since the project was a huge one involving not only the construction of a deep water port but also an industrial corridor.
He argued that the decision would immensely benefit farmers in 29 villages as what they would get in return in the form of plots would have value much more than the value of the lands sought to be taken from them now. The minister did not give any room for the media persons to doubt that he was inadvertently giving wrong statistics.
