Ban on cultivation draws farmers’ ire

VIJAYAWADA/GUNTUR: Following the ban imposed on cultivation in the proposed capital city area, angry farmers from Krishna river bank villages on Thursday staged protests alleging that the state government did not consult them before taking this major decision.
Sensing the mood of farmers, opposition parties including Congress, YSRCP and CPM joined the agitation against ban on farming in the core capital city.CRDA commissioner N Srikanth on Wednesday had announced that farmers would not be allowed to grow crop from the coming agricultural season.
Mangalagiri legislator and YSRCP leader Alla Ramakrishna Reddy launched a novel protest by working as a farm hand in local nurseries. “The CRDA commissioner feels that he is a law unto himself. Farmers will teach him a lesson if he visits the riverside villages,” warned Ramakrishna Reddy. He demanded that the state government should clarify under which law it had banned cultivation.
The government cannot ban cultivation unilaterally, he said.
He claimed that the government could not pool even 500 acres of land in Mangalagiri assembly constituency. Offi cials have identifi ed 12,500 acres in Mangalagiri for land pooling.
Local farmers said they cultivate about 150 varieties of food grains, vegetables and fruits and this crop diversity would be lost forever if concrete buildings come up in fertile land.
“Unlike their counterparts in other areas, local farmers do not have any particular season for cultivation. They grow crop round the year,” said M Satyanarayana of Uddandarayunipalem.
The government cannot impose a general ban. It can do so only in agricultural land belonging to farmers, who are participating in the land pooling scheme.