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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

BJP protests against KSEZ

Staff Reporter

Kakinada: A large number of BJP activists led by their State president Bandaru Dattatreya and farmers took part in a protest demonstration against the Kakinada Special Economic Zone (KSEZ) in front of the Collector’s office here on Saturday.

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Dattatreya said the process of land acquisition for the KSEZ was replete with human rights violations and some middlemen were doing real estate business with the land in collusion with those who call the shots in the ruling party.

‘Harassment’

Nowhere else in the State was such a large area acquired in the name of an SEZ in blatant violation of norms, he said. The farmers were coerced to part with their valuable lands and those who resisted the attempts to snatch their small land holdings were being harassed by the police at the behest of some vested interests, Mr. Dattatreya alleged.

Mr. Dattatreya regretted that the government did not feel it proper to suspend the project even after the High Court was approached by the aggrieved sections. The State Human Rights Commission’s strictures also appeared to have been brushed aside.

‘Cancel project’

The BJP leader demanded that the KSEZ be cancelled and land given back to the farmers to enable them to eke out a living out of it. His party would not hesitate to shelve such projects which jeopardize the lives of such poor communities who have been enduring oppression for a long time. BJP State secretary Somu Veerraju and district president K. Sarvarayudu were among those who took part in the agitation. They also raised the issues of price rise and lawlessness in the State under the current dispensation.

‘Lands will be returned’

Rajahmundry: The NDA, if elected to power, would return the fertile lands acquired for the SEZs in the country, including the 12,000 acres acquired for the facility in Kakinada, Mr. Dattatreya told newsmen here.

He charged the State government with unnecessarily acquiring huge extent of land in Kakinada and allotting some 4,280 acres of the extent to private landlord at government price. Majority of the farmers are poor and hold fertile lands. “As if this is not enough, most of the villages in two mandals are discriminated against vis-À-vis implementation of welfare schemes ever since the land there was notified as SEZ in 1994,” he charged. Despite opposition of farmers in Tammavaram village to part with their lands, Mr. Dattatreya alleged that the government acquired some 19 acres and allotted it to a local MLA.

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