Vijayawada: Around 220 farmers from Penumaka village of Thullur Mandal have thronged CRDA office on Friday to file their objections on land pooling system, in response to the notification issued by the AP state government on January 3rd. It invites the farmers to file their objections on the prescribed Form 9.2 provided for this purpose within 30 days. The farmers of the village said that 90 per cent of the people in their village are opposing land pooling and not willing to depart with their fertile lands. They said that they will not hesitate to knock the court doors if CRDA ignores their objections.

So far, the state government was able to gather consent letters from farmers for 8500 acres of land in Thullur Mandal, whereas it’s target is double that figure. Hence, it is planning to invoke the provisions of the new land acquisition act to collect the remaining 22, 000 acres of land from the farmers.

Although, the new act enable the state government for land acquisition, there are certain clauses like right to fair compensation, transparency in land acquisition, social impact assessment, rehabilitation and resettlement may make the task tough for the state government. So, if the farmers challenge the state government in the courts taking cue of any of these clauses of the act, delay may be inevitable.