Want land? Rush to AP

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: Want land to set up an industry, an educational institute, a company or anything else? Well, come to Andhra Pradesh and the state government is ready to distribute any extent of land for whatever purpose. But the time is too short – hardly a couple of more days since notification for the general elections is expected any moment – and some “formalities” are to be fulfilled before the land is allotted.
The state government has in the past few days cleared numerous proposals for allotment of land to various sections and officials of the revenue department are too busy burning the midnight oil to issue requisite government orders to complete the formalities.
Journalists, government officers, judicial employees, government employees, industrialists and some private persons were given thousands of acres of land across the state.
Overlooking the protests by local people, the controversial Vadarevu and Nizampatnam Port and Industrial Corridor Limited was given 6796.44 acres of land in Prakasam district and 224.38 acres more in Guntur district. All this is land previously assigned to local people for agriculture but now the government has “resumed” it to re-allot to VANPIC, promoted by UAE-based Ras-al-Khaimah. Ras-al-Khaimah also got another 105 acres in Medak district for the Hyderabad Economic City project.
In Chilamathur in Anantapur district, the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation has been given 1680.99 acre for establishment of Lepakshi Knowledge City. Another 1064.86 acres has also been given in Tummala village to APIIC and another 349.24 acres in Chilamathur for development of an industrial park. All this land is said to be for the Lepakshi Knowledge City that is just about 70-km from the new Bengaluru International Airport abutting the National Highway-7.
In Anantapur district again, the APIIC got 429.11 acres in Gudipadu village for an industrial park.
In Chittoor district, 977.74 acres of land spread across three villages has been allotted to the APIIC for establishment of a Digital World City.
Several other proposals for allotment of land to journalists and government employees have also been cleared by the government and now about 200 acres of land is ready for distribution.