Andhra Pradesh government introduces bill in Assembly to replace APCRDA with AMRDA

Municipal Administration minister Botcha Satyanarayana said that the APCRDA Act shall cease to exist, but all the agreements made with the farmers of the Amaravati region w.r.t their lands.
Screengrab of Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy during assembly on capital issue in Velagapudi on Monday. (Photo| EPS)
Screengrab of Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy during assembly on capital issue in Velagapudi on Monday. (Photo| EPS)

VIJAYAWADA:  A Bill to repeal the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) Act was introduced in the AP State Legislative Assembly on Monday, the first day of the extended winter session. Now, Amaravati Metropolitan Region Development Area (AMRDA) will replace the APCRDA.

Introducing the Bill, Minister for Municipal Administration Botcha Satyanarayana said the APCRDA Act shall cease to exist, but all the agreements made with the farmers of the Amaravati region with regard to lands taken from them and bonds issued will be honoured. "We will do better than what the previous government did to take care of the farmers who parted with their lands," he asserted.

The minister said that the State Cabinet, after deliberating the findings of the high power committee that deploying all the resources in one centralised decision-making region would be inequitable and inconsistent with the governmental objective of ushering in decentralised development, decided to repeal the APCRDA Act with substantive savings clauses to protect the interests of farmers and provide for transitional provisions including for the successor entity to the APCRDA. 

"The government has decided to increase the pensions being given to the landless farm labour from Rs 2,500 per month to Rs 5,000 per month. Further, it decided to give the returnable plots to those who gave assigned lands to the government under the land pooling scheme on par with dry land farmers," Botcha explained.

He further said that annuity for crop loss is being paid at Rs 50,000 for Jarebu and Rs 30,000 for dry lands with an increase of 10 per cent every year, hereafter will be for a period of 15 years instead of 10 years. However, the annuity amount for the last five years will be the same as the annuity given in the 10th year.

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