Land acquisition by deploying police shameful: Lok Satta

The Lok Satta Party said today that the Government should be ashamed of acquiring land for the Kakinada SEZ (special economic zone) by deploying police. “If the farmers of Tondangi and Kothapalli mandals in East Godavari district are resisting land acquisition, the Government alone is to blame.” Talking to the media, party spokesman Katari Srinivasa Rao and Working Committee member N. Ravinder said violence normally erupted in land acquisition when farmers are not adequately compensated.

The Lok Satta leaders said controversies over allocation of huge chunks of land to SEZs underlined the need for an independent agency to determine the land needed for any project or industry planned in the SEZ. Small countries like South Korea and Israel have demonstrated that even big industries do not require thousands of acres of land as in India. “Agitations by farmers can be preempted if they are paid higher than market rates for land, given a share in the developed land and assured training and employment to at least one member of the family to be displaced.”