Pawan Kalyan opposes forcible land acquisition for Andhra capital

Popular Telugu film star and Jana Sena founder Pawan Kalyan has once again urged Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu not to invoke the Land Acquisition Act to acquire fertile land for the state capital.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, the actor advised Naidu to show wisdom by refraining from invoking the Act to acquire land for Amaravati, the capital coming up in Guntur district.

Pawan, who has been voicing the concerns of farmers for the last few weeks, had tweeted on August 16 that the TDP government should not use the Act on unwilling farmers of multi-cropped land in the capital region.

"I urge Hon'ble CM of AP.. Sri CBN garu not to use 'Land acquisition act' on fertile multi-cropped lands of Undavalli, Penumaka, Bethapudi... & other river front villages," he tweeted on Thursday.

"Whichever be the country, whoever be the ruler, the price of development of one area or one group always results in environmental pollution, displacement and disgruntlement of another group. This is very nature of the civilisation. But development with least damage possible lies in the wisdom of the ruler," said the actor-turned-politician.

Pawan, who had campaigned for the TDP-BJP combine in last year's elections, has been expressing his views publicly, opposing use of the Act for building the new capital.

The younger brother of actor and Congress leader Chiranjeevi had even threatened to launch an indefinite fast to protect the interests of farmers.

Reacting to Pawan's earlier comments on the issue, Naidu claimed that people voluntarily came forward to give 33,000 acres of land for the capital under the land pooling system.

Naidu has repeatedly said farmers were giving their land on their own without any use of force by the government.

The TDP chief criticised the opposition YSR Congress and the Congress for provoking the farmers not to par with their land.