The proposal to allot house sites to over 54,000 poor families, as part of Navaratnalu-Pedalandariki Illu programme, in the capital region of Amaravati, has triggered a lot of controversy, with farmers of Amaravati strongly protesting the move and challenging it in the court of law.
Telugu Desam Party leaders, including their president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, have opposed the move, stating that the government had no right to distribute the lands given by the farmers for capital construction in the name of weaker section housing programme.
And that is what the YSRC leadership wanted. They have now got an opportunity to project Naidu as anti-people and especially anti-Dalit as he is opposed to distribution of lands to the poor, in order to protect the interests of real estate mafia in Amaravati.
YSRC legislator T J R Sudhakar Babu on Saturday wondered whether downtrodden people like Dalits, tribals and Backward Classes had no right over the land in Amaravati.
He sought to know why Naidu is creating so much fuss when the government wants to provide housing for the poor in the capital region.
“Why can’t the downtrodden communities have land to live in Amaravati region and does Naidu want only his cronies to prosper there with the lands they grabbed during the TDP regime?” he asked.
He alleged that what Naidu did in the past five years was just real estate business to make his henchmen prosper and he was encouraging untouchability in the region.