reserved forests, reserved lands
are coming with new forms.
Hundreds of acres are becoming
enclosures and are extending
under different names like organic
farming, medicinal plantations,
cashew, nilgiri, subabul, red
sandal, sri gandha, Malabar, teak,
etc plantations. Huge illegal funds
acquired by the Ministers of the
ruling parties, MLAs, and
bureaucrats and large sums of
black money earned by big
business houses are being diverted
to acquire lands. On the other
hand, public properties, resources
[sand, clay, granite, banjars,
assigned lands, government lands,
ponds, etc] at village and mandal
level are grabbed and looted on a
massive scale with the support of
the ruling party and under the
shameless supervision of MLAs
and ministers.
Way back in 1996,nation-wide
funds were provided by World Bank
for digitalization of land records.
Now the government has made
computer registered 1-B as a
standard for all land deals including
buying, selling, for getting bank
loans and for deciding ownership.
The rules are so made without
taking into consideration the facts
at the ground level, that the 1-B’s
digital rights gives all powers. No
rights or guarantees are provided
to those poor and weaker sections
who are cultivating their lands since
ages but doesn’t have any official
pattas. Further, the purpose of this
Digital 1-B is to rob their existing
traditional rights. World Bank is the
original force behind 1-B
computerization. Hitech agents like
Chandra Babu woke up early than
other CMs in implementing
technology for land grabbing. He
has a notorious history in such
aspects. Even the politically and
socially dominant classes are
grabbing the lands through unjust
and unlawful means.
4
Industry and Labour
The Telugu Desam party in its
2014 manifesto promised that it will
look into all the lands allocated to
SEZ’s by the previous government,
will take back the lands that are not
put into use or are illegally allocated
and take stringent action against
irregularities and violations.
After continuous agitations
from the people against the
acquisition of thousands of acres
of land in the coastal areas of
Srikakulam for thermal plants in
Sompeta and Kakarapalli, the
government has declared that it
has stopped the construction of
these plants. But till now the lands
were not returned to the people.
After the Andhra Pradesh state
bifurcation, Visakhapatnam is the
only Industrial hub in AP. In Guntur
district, cotton, Ginning mills, Ferro
alloys industries in Garividi are on
their death beds. The historic Jute
industries of Srikakulam, Vijaya-
nagaram, and Visakhapatnam are
under distress due to the
negligence of the government.
Even though all Jute mills (25-30)
in North Andhra are shut down
Chandra Babu didn’t show any
interest to revive them in his entire
tenure. In the same way the state
government didn’t take any
responsibility for the agriculture
based industries- the sugar mills
especially, the cooperative sugar
mills.
The once booming employ-
ment providers for the rural
families, these factories are now
doomed to death. Even in this
situation also the Chandra Babu
government didn’t take any
concrete steps to protect these
factories. No steps are taken to
protect agriculture based auxiliary
industry like poultry, aqua, diary etc.
No action is taken to protect Palm
oil and Solvent industries from
monopoly companies. Also there
are no protective measures for
medium enterprises like Quarry,
Crusher and Granite, against
monopoly competition. Instead of
putting restrictions on monopoly
companies penetration and
provide employment for workers’,
it is giving sops to the big
corporates.
Pipe dream projects
The government of TDP since
its formation after the bifurcation of
state is fully engaged in creating
euphoria by placating many
infrastructure projects as symbols
of development. The Chief Minister
repeatedly claimed to build a port
in each coastal district and an
airport in every district and road
connectivity with the capital region.
It is nothing but putting horse
behind the cart. The construction
of infrastructure projects does not
produce products to be exported
or create market for imports.
Without any industrial develop-
ment construction of infrastructure
projects will only become white
elephants.
The most prestigious road
transport system in the entire
country, APSRTC’s funds are
illegally appropriated by the
government and a handful of
higher officials. They made
conflicting agreements with the
private transport players at the
cost of welfare of the employees
and are destroying the APSRTC.
These officials are giving
thousands of crores worth of prime
property of APSRTC located at the
centre of every city, at dirt-cheap
prices to their kith and kin.
In the pooled lands in each
district not even 10% of industries
were built till date. This indicates
why they acquired such huge
lands. The Supreme Court,
Parliamentary Committee and CAG
looked into the allocation of SEZs
and gave their reports. CAG has
submitted an in-depth report on
SEZs. It clearly stated that the land
Class Struggle