Realty swallows farm land - Times of India

The lands where vegetables, paddy and other food crops were grown abundantly on the outskirts of Greater Vizag once, have now become big-time Real Estate hubs. Realtors The city is losing its charm and lush green cover thanks to the realty monster," rued retired state government employee M Sathya Raju. He, however, said it's difficult to stop the realty boom. While real estate firms have mushroomed by purchasing thousands of acres of cultivable land and converting them into housing plots, labour shortage and lack of remunerative price for their produce has forced the marginal farmers to sell their land to Realtors. Appala Naidu, a farmer of Anandapuram, said several progressive farmers were against conversion of cultivable land into real estate properties. If the realtors have their way, they would convert the entire land for housing purposes. But it would pose a greater threat to food security," he complained. Pendurthy assembly constituency, which was famous for vegetable farming alone has lost 17,000 acres to the realty sector. Nearly 150 new layouts have sprung up by squeezing almost 8,000 acres in 24 villages in Pendurthy mandal. The lands in Pendurthy were fertile and had better irrigation facilities and farmers used to grow vegetables in huge quantities as the area is very close to the city. But ever since the realtors set their eyes, the farm lands soon became layouts, house plots where high-rises and other structures came up. And once Vizag was bestowed the 'greater city' status, real estate firms started making a killing by obtaining the necessary permissions from Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (Vuda) and converting farm lands for housing purposes. Builder B Ramajogi, however, refused to put the entire blame on realty sector. He hastened to add that there were still plenty of farm land on the outskirts of the city where crops and vegetables could be grown. The 20 lakh populace of the greater city consumes more than 20,000 quintals of vegetables everyday, including 4,000 quintals sold at 12 rythu bazars. They are grown in an area of 4,500 acres," a marketing official told TOI. Horticultural department assistant director S Rammohan said the production of vegetables on the outskirts of the city had dropped to 30 per cent in recent times. In fact, some of the arable land was farmed to accommodate industries by the government. Sources said the realtors turned their focus on Sabbavaram after the government had decided to set up a maritime university, a law university and other such projects there. This will alert our moderators to take actionNameReason for reporting:Foul languageSlanderousInciting hatred against a certain communityOthersYour Reason has been Submitted to the admin.