Land pooling at snail's pace, officials struggle to reach targets

Tadikonda (Guntur district) Feb 10, 2015:Despite constituting Capital region Development Authority (CRDA) and two senior IAS officers administering it for pooling land to build capital city, the process of land pooling is moving at snail's pace even as the deadline is fast approaching. The CRDA has been trying to pool 30,000 acres from the farmers to build the capital city on or before the Feb 14 deadline. Two Deputy Collectors, half a dozen Tahasildars, some revenue inspectors and village assistants are working hard to reach the target but the efforts have so far resulted in pooling of only 17,004 acres in 29 villages of capital region. The officials have to pool another 13,000 acres in five days from today. This means they have to take consent letters from farmers at the rate of 2600 acres per day. The task has really become a challenging one. However, past experience has shown that officials were able to collect only 400 to 500 acres daily. At this rate, they would be able to collect a maximum of 2500 acres by the deadline. Most of the farmers feel that this is happening because of the lack of confidence on Chandrababu Naidu Government which has failed to keep its promise on total loan waiver. In some villages, even the TDP leaders also have failed to submit their land surrender letter for various reasons.