Cong-TD Combine to Broker Navayuga Lands

Keeping aside the much talked about land policy, both the arch rivals Congress and TDP are ready to broker lands for Navayuga group. The state government is facing a lot of pressure from the developers of Machilipatnam port. The Navayuga group is insisting upon the government to allot 6000 acres for the construction of Machilipatnam port as envisaged earlier.

Of the total area, the government owns 1,600 acres and has to acquire the rest from farmers. The proposal to allow the Krishna district administration to acquire land is awaiting the approval of the Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. The government's approval is mandatory for the district administration to initiate the process of issuing notification. Sources said the Chief Minister's Office held a review with the infrastructure and investment department officials on the Machilipatnam project, in particular land acquisition.

Sources say that the developers are very keen at acquiring the lands much before the Kiran Kumar government comes out with new policy pertaining to land acquisition and the government too is responding positively in this regard. It is said the developer made it clear that the project would be kept on hold until the government hands over the entire 6,000 acres. Navayuga even said to have offered to advance the amount for land acquisition to the government and adjust the same in their future payments.

Interestingly, the political rivals, Congress and Telugu Desam, both agree on allowing acquisition of 4,000 acres from farmers in the area. The TD, which has questioned the land allotments of the previous Congress government claiming that it snatched away farmers' lands for infra projects, is fully supporting the land acquisition for the port. The Machilipatnam Congress MLA and the TD MP assured the Chief Minister that they would take up the responsibility for smooth land acquisition. They even competed with each other to offer resignation if the government failed to initiate the acquisition process, it is said.