The Pedda Karagraharam panchayat in Machilipatnam mandal of Krishna district on Wednesday decided to pass a resolution against the State government’s move to acquire nearly 650 acres of land for various port-based industries. Farmers and fishermen of the panchayat turned up for a grama gabha on Wednesday and discussed their plan of action to stop the land survey and acquisition process.
The State government plans to acquire 30,000 acres including 14,500 acres of private land for the Machilipatnam deep sea port and other industries related to petrochemicals and food processing. A total of 650 acres of land in Peda Karagraharam panchayat would be acquired as per the land acquisition notification issued on August 30.
“Four of nine hamlets in our panchayat are to be displaced as per the notification,” said sarpanch Sonti Kalyani. The four hamlets are Salvation Army Colony, Kaputuru, Poruturu and Gowdapalem.
“We have already expressed our willingness to part with nearly 740 acres of land for the port. But we will not allow the survey team into our villages as no one is interested to part with land for other industries,” said S. Fareed, an activist and Ms. Kalyani’s husband.Mr. Fareed has added that the panchayat is exploring options to launch a legal battle to stop the land acquisition as the officials have issued the notification while the land acquisition ordinance 2015 was in force to avoid having to take consent from the grama sabha and do a social impact assessment. Speaking to The Hindu , RDO P. Saibabu confirmed that there was no need to consult the grama sabha and do the social impact assessment as per the land acquisition ordinance 2015 for infrastructure projects.
The survey teams are being trained to start the survey from Friday.
