TDP gets four acres of land in Amaravati under revised policy

Amaravati, Jul 22: The ruling Telugu Desam Party will get four acres of land in Andhra Pradesh's new capital Amaravati under the revised policy for allotment of land to national political parties and recognised state parties.

The Chandrababu Naidu government last night came out with the "revised policy" for allotment of land to the parties in the state headquarters and the district headquarters under which only TDP will be eligible to get four acres of land in Amaravati.

In each district headquarter, the ruling party is eligible for two acres of land, going by its strength in the AP Legislative Assembly that forms the basis of land allotment. The land is meant for construction of the party office. Though a national party, the Congress will have to be content with only 1,000 sq yds of land in Amaravati and a mere 300 sq yds in the district headquarters as it has not a single member in the Assembly.

The same rule applies to Bharatiya Janata Party as it has just four MLAs, which is less than the 25 per cent of the Assembly strength stipulated for land allotment under the revised policy.

The lone opposition YSR Congress will get half acre in Amaravati and 1,000 sq yds in the district headquarters, as per the revised policy.

The land will be leased out initially for a period of 33 years at the paltry rate of Rs 1,000 per acre per annum. The revised policy, issued in the form of a Government Order by Special Chief Secretary (Revenue) Jagdish Chander Sharma, says the lease is renewable upto a total of 99 years "provided the party survives".

The revised policy comes into effect in suppression of the land allotment policy framed way back in 1987 when, incidentally, the TDP was in power. "In the 1987 policy, there was no eligibility criteria for the political parties. In several cases the land was allotted on alienation basis in relaxation of the policy. The government, hence, felt the need for revising the above policy and bringing out a new policy so as to bring out uniform guidelines in the matter of allotment," the Special Chief Secretary said in the GO.

PTI