Background

After Andra Pradesh bifurcation in 2014, Hyderabad: the capital during that time became part of Telangana and the state of Andra Pradesh had to form a new capital. Government of Andra pradesh of Andra Pradesh during that time studied various regions in the state and chose a group of 29 villages in Guntur district as the new capital of AP and named it “Amaravati”. The proposal of Amaravati has been unanimously supported in the assembly by all the political parties including YS Jagan Mohan Reddy who was the opposition leader during that time. Mr Reddy also mentioned that the capital should need at least 30,000 acres of land. Here are the reasons why Amaravati got unanimous support as new capital of AP:

One- Its location in the middle of the state at a distance of around 450 km from Srikakulam and Anantapur that are located at two extremes of the state and

Two – its location on the banks of river Krishna. Due to the existence of Prakasam barrage dam on river Krishna, there is always surplus availability of water and yet the regions is protected from floods by man-made embankment and lift irrigation systems. National Green tribunal of India has also certified that Amaravati is not a flood prone region.

The government of Andra Pradesh did not have financial resources to buy the lands from the farmers, so it followed a land pooling procedure where for every acre of land, the farmer gets back 25% of the land as developed plots that can be used for residential and commercial purposes. As Amaravati will be the capital of AP, it is anticipated that the farmers will be financially benefited from the land prices that will eventually appreciate. A total of around 33,000 acres of land was pooled by the government involving 28,000 farmer families. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with a number of central ministers attended various inaugural ceremonies in Amaravati.

Indeed, due to lack of financial resources Amaravati has been designed to be a self financing project by attracting a number of investors, educational and financial institutions and IT companies. Government provides the investors land and other resources and in return revenue is generated; that can be used to develop various parts of the state along with Amaravati. Moreover, the government can also sell some portion of lands in this region to construct various offices related to capital city. Amaravati has been designed to be built in stages and it takes over 50 years for a capital to be constructed. We do not have to spend all the financial resources right way in building a capital.

Amaravati progressed towards development until April 2019. Secretariat, assembly and high court were constructed, and the governance started from Amaravati. Judge houses, MLA, MP, HOD and NGO quarters were in progress, foundations for a number high rise buildings were almost done. A number of 6-10 lane roads were laid out improving connectivity to the region. Educational institutions and universities were established.

After assembly elections in April 2019, the government changed. The new government claimed that the Amaravati projects should be reanalysed and ceased all the constructions right away. The projects never re-initialized. This eventually turned away a number of investors, business and financial institutions and IT companies. The government denied the world bank loan of 3000 crores that was previously sanctioned for the development of Amaravati. Moreover, starting from August 2019 the ministers started making false allegations on Amaravati that it is a flood prone region, cost of construction is high on these lands even though 70% of the foundations had already been laid out, there had been some insider trading done on the these lands by the previous government and finally the current govt. has no financial resources to develop the capital region.

On 17 dec 2019, indirectly based on the same allegations Chief minister of Andra Pradesh YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, announced that Andhra Pradesh should have three capitals. The same was declared by a reports submitted by a number of committees appointed by the government such as: GN Rao committee, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and High power committee; implying 1)Kurnool as Judicial capital by relocating high court from Amaravati to Kurnool, 2) Vishakhapattam as Executive and financial capital by relocating  secretariat, Assembly, CMs office and to vishakapattanam to attract investors and 3) Amaravati as legislative capital where winter assembly sessions will be held for 15 days/year along with a couple of educational institutions.

The GN Rao committee is propagated that the decision of 3 capitals has been made after consulting 2000 farmers in Amaravati, where in fact the farmers are in denial of this. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) claimed that their decision in favour of moving the capital of Andhra Pradesh to Visakhapatnam is based on a research conducted by Indian Institute of Madras (IIT) Madras, that showed Amaravati is flood prone region and is unsuitable for constructions; where in reality IIT Madras had denied that they have conducted any such research on Amaravati. And finally the high power committee that consisted of the Minister of the government supported the three capital decision without any concrete explanation.  The ministers till today say that justice will be done to the farmers by giving them the developed plots and also stated that the lands can be returned to the farmers if necessary. The ministers in the government should know some facts: 1. The plots that will be given to the farmers can accompany 25-40 lakh people, and will be of no use if Amaravati is only used during 15 days a year. 2. these lands are surrendered to the government. They can neither be returned nor be useful for agriculture purposes; Roads were built, buildings were constructed, foundations were laid with 2-300ft deep under the ground. Our agricultural lands have been turned into concrete jungle.

The government agrees that they invested around 5,500 crore rupees in Amaravati and yet is planning to move majority of the capital region to Vishakapattanam, that is located at the northern corner of the state and where things should start again from scratch. This will lead to a heavier financial burden on the govt and eventually on the people of the Andra Pradesh. Facts also show that Vishakapattanam had been affected by a devastating cyclone hud-hud in 2014 and Kurnool was completely flooded in 2009. Even to date there is no record of floods in the Amaravati region. Farmers are also requesting the govt to take legal actions if there really is any insider trading of Amaravati lands. No clear explanation was given to the farmers till date regarding the change of capital of Andra Pradesh. Is it because of the financial gain of the political leaders or is it a mere brutal grudge on the decision made by the former government??  In either case the farmers of Amaravati have become the victims. Farmers clearly state that they are not against the decentralization of development of the state implying that investments should to brought into various parts of the state. No region is 100% suitable to construct a capital, there are trade-offs involved everywhere. At the same time they are asking the government to keep up the promise by declaring Amaravati as the executive capital of the state.

Starting from the 18^th of Dec 2019, farmers started protesting against the decision made by the government of Andra Pradesh. Today there are around 1,50,000 individuals including farmers and their families who are drastically affected by this decision. Media has been supressed and not much of the protests are being telecasted. The farmers were either called paid artists or cases were filed against those who spoke to the media. This is a movement not involving any particular caste, region, religion or political party. The movement is against the betrayal of Andra Pradesh government to the farmers of Amaravati. We request people from all the corners of the country to support the “Save Amaravati” and “Save Amaravati farmers” movement.

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Political Circus

The state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) had to form a new capital after separation of Telangana in 2014. Due to unavailability of public land and financial resources, the government of Andhra Pradesh implemented land pooling system; where the govt. will acquire lands from private land owners and in return gives the owners 25% of the land as developed plots. Following the land pooling system, 30,000 acres of land was acquired from the farmers of a group of 29 villages (later named together as “Amaravati”). A legal agreement was made between the farmers and the government of AP, under Capital Region Development of Andhra Pradesh (CRDA) act to use the acquired lands exclusively to build the capital city “Amaravati”.

Since 2019, Andhra Pradesh government is considering to limit Amaravati as legislative capital (active 15 days/year) and to distribute the rest of the land bank to the poor – which in turn is a “Breach of trust”. Amaravati farmers started protests against this proposal since December 2019. The Government has not come forward even to hear from the farmers and in fact has been injecting hardships on the farmers by using forces. Now the time has come for all like-minded people come together and extend their support including  the moral and legal, to achieve the genuine cause to save Amaravati lands and to have Amaravati as the only capital city for  the state of Andhra Pradesh. Helper foundation also extends its support to Amaravati farmers under humanitarian grounds and legal proceedings.

For more information on Background click here.

Why support Amaravati farmers

Leaders may change but the government doesn’t. In democracy, legal agreements made by the government under the rule of one political party cannot be annulled by other political party that later comes in to power.

• Breach of trust

Amaravati farmers had a legal agreement with AP-CRDA which is a government body. Limiting Amaravati to legislative capital (active 15 days/year) and issuing government orders (GOs) to distribute the Amaravati land bank to the poor is in turn is a “breach of trust” under sub-section 10.1 (subject to correction) as per the CRDA act.

• Violation of rights

In democracy citizens have every right to express their disapproval of government’s decisions in a non-violent way. The government of Andra Pradesh had injected violent hardships when the farmers and farmer women were non-violently protesting against the government’s “Breach of trust”. This lead to violation of civil rights, democratic rights, women’s rights and human rights as a whole.

• False cases

A number of cases were filed under decoit and other sections (need more info.), on male and female farmers who non-violently questioned the government and spoke to media. So far, the government of AP had filed a number of cases on around 2000 farmers.

News and Press

Legal

Helper foundation has chosen to support Amaravati farmers through legal battle. The foundation has filed a number of cases supporting the farmers in the high court of Andhra Pradesh and two cases in international courts; one regarding “Breach of trust” in International court of Justice (Hedge) and the other regarding “violation of human rights” in Human rights court (Amsterdam).

Details of Each Case

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Donate

Are you willing to take part in protecting Amaravati farmers from the hardships of the government ??

Please Donate and help us progress in the legal battle