Vizianagaram Collector M. Hari Jawaharlal said that there would not be any forcible land acquisition for the distribution of house sites planned to coincide with Ugadi.
“The government is paying almost 2.5 times more than the prevailing land price after studying the registration value of the lands in the respective areas,” he said. “Many landlords are coming forward to sell land to the government as they are getting good value for their properties,” Dr. Jawaharlal told The Hindu.
The land acquisition has led to a series of agitations by opposition parties.
The Collector said that 895 acres of land was available with the government, of which only 462 acres of land was being acquired for the distribution of house sites. “We have been developing 995 layouts in rural areas and 20 in urban areas such as Vizianagaram, Bobbili, Parvatipuram, Saluru and other places. The layouts will be developed as model colonies with all amenities,” he said.
“The land acquisition officiers have been permitted to withdraw ₹145 crore to acquire land. The government had already released ₹97 crore in phases and the remaining amount would be disbursed after the submission of bills,” Dr. Jawaharlal said.
“All village volunteers, secretaries and revenue officials were advised to carefully verify and choose genuine beneficiaries who will be allotted land for construction of houses in the future. As many as 33,926 people would get house sites in rural areas. The government will distribute house sites to 25,183 persosn in urban areas. The selection of 59,109 beneficiaries has been completed in all 34 mandals,” the Collector said.
Dr. Jawaharlal said that a high-level meeting would be conducted soon to speed up layout developments and finalise a list of selected beneficiaries in accordance with guidelines issued by the Special Officer and Chief Minister’s Secretary K. Dhanunjaya Reddy, who recently visited the North Andhra region to review the house sites issue.
