Vijayawada: The Guntur district
administration has so far acquired nearly 2,500-3,000 acres from farmers for
developing the new state capital around Vijayawada-Guntur stretch, Andhra Pradesh Information
and Public Relations Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy said on Saturday.
Refuting
the claim, the opposition leaders alleged that officials are indulging in
coercive methods for acquiring land from farmers. Andhra
Pradesh Congress Committee Secretary K Shivaji told PTI that farmers are not
willing to relinquish their valuable land but the government is using force
against those who are reluctant to hand over their land. He
said though municipal administration minister Dr P Narayana personally
campaigned in the villages in the past fortnight, they failed to acquire not
more than 2,000 acres.
Shivaji
said yesterday some farmers also met Union minister of state for Commerce
Nirmala Sitharaman who was here to attend the tour of BJP president Amit Shah.
Meanwhile,
Reddy has also said the government has decided to celebrate festival Pongal as
'state festival' and celebrations would be kicked off by Chief Minister
Chandrababu Naidu at Tirupati on January 13.
A
budget of Rs 13.2 crore has been sanctioned for the purpose, he added.
