Yechury warns farmers against land pooling

Praja Natya Mandali artistes performing at Golden Jubilee celebrations of the CPI (M), in Vijayawada on Firday. 

CPI (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury warned of the imminent danger for farmers in VGTM region of losing their wealth in the days to come, if they gave their lands for construction of the capital city.

The same was the experience of farmers in the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi where they became neo-rich during the development of the NCR, but soon turned paupers as the pecuniary benefits given to them did not last long, he pointed out. “There is every possibility of it repeating in case farmers succumbed to machinations of the A.P government as the Chief Minister is oblivious to the ground realties,” he said.

Addressing a public meeting here on Friday as part of the party’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, Mr. Yechury said Mr. Naidu’s trip to Singapore was aimed at rolling out red carpet to investors whose sole motive would be making profit. Reaching out to the so called think-tanks and investors in Singapore was not wrong, but doing that without taking stakeholders back home into confidence was objectionable.

The Chief Minister’s ‘land pooling’ approach to identify the land required for capital city was flawed as the Land Acquisition (LA) Act of 2013 was sought to be pushed aside in favour of the Land Acquisition Act,1894. Doing that in the present context was absurd, he said.

Referring to the rich-poor divide in the country, Mr. Yechury said nearly half of the national GDP was in the hands of 55 billionaires. Some corporate honchos had parked their investments in countries like the UK even as lakhs of youth were looking for jobs here, he said.

The quantum of tax concessions and incentives given to industries far outweighed the benefits that accrued through the rise in production and the number of jobs claimed to be created, Mr. Yechury said, while expressing the resolve of CPI (M), CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Forward Bloc and CPI (ML) and Socialist Unity Centre of India to fight against ‘anti-people’ policies of the NDA government from December.