Andhra Pradesh capital has become a boon to encroachers of forest lands as well. It is known that the Government is keen on having the state capital in the VGTM zone. The government claims to have 35,000-40,000 acres of forest land in Nuzvid, Agiripalle, Bapulapadu, Musunuru, Gannavaram in Krishna district, Mangalagiri, Tadikonda, Tulluru and Amaravathi in Guntur district but irnonicaly more than 30000-35000 of the lands are under encroachments. It is a natural right for the government to arm twist the encroachers and take back the lands but the government instead will be now paying some kind of ex-gratia to the encroachers.
Government is of the opinion that dealing the encroachers with an iron fist will only delay the things through legal tangles. Some sort of compensation will let the encroachers surrender the land to the government with out a murmur of protest. Sivaramakrishnan committee opined that the government has to spend nearly Rs 40,000 crore to acquire 35,000 acres. But if the government decided to take back land from encroachers by paying a token compensation like Rs 2 lakh per acre, it could easily acquire so much land for just Rs 7,000 crore.
