Draft master plan of Kamareddy, Jagtial withdrawn

Industrial zone draft master-plans for Kamareddy and Jagtial municipalities were withdrawn by the municipal councils of the two districts

Kamareddy: Amid protests by farmers, Industrial zone draft master-plans for Kamareddy and Jagtial municipalities were withdrawn by the municipal councils of the two districts on Friday.

With the two councils passing resolutions against the draft Master Plans, the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of farmers called off their agitation with immediate effect.

Earlier, a resolution to this effect was passed unanimously during the council meeting chaired by the chairpersons of the Kamareddy and Jagtial municipalities in their respective district and forwarded the copy to the State government for its perusal.

Meanwhile, Municipal Administration & Urban Development special chief secretary Arvind Kumar, who held a review with the collector, additional collector and municipal commissioner at Kamareddy Collectorate on the issue announced that the master plan has been put on hold till consensus is arrived among stakeholders.

He Tweeted,”Had detailed review with @Collector_KMR reg the draft Master Plan for Kamareddy today. There’s need to engage with farmers & landowners especially erstwhile GPs now merged with Kamareddy & the draft plan is put on hold indefinitely until the process is done through consensus.”

Kamareddy Municipal council chairperson Jahnavi said during an emergency meeting of the council it was decided to withdraw the master plan prepared by the Design Development Forum. No industrial zone on farmers land will be allowed under any circumstances, Jahnavi stated.

Jagtial municipal chairperson Shravani told the media that the district administration took the decision to withdraw the master plan to render justice to farmers. “We will not do anything which is against the interest of farmers,” she said.

The farmers celebrated the decision by bursting crackers and greeting each other. Farmers have been protesting against the new master plan as they suspect that their lands would be taken away by the government for the proposed industrial zone. They also feared that the value of their lands would fall if the industrial zone came up near their lands.

As part of the master plan revision, an agency was appointed to come up with a new master plan for the town for the next 20 years. The draft plan was approved by the council and was put up for public scrutiny on November 13.

However, the farmers were not satisfied with the draft plan and alleged that 1,210 acres of agricultural land in seven villages was brought under the industrial zone and green zone for the draft master plan and that the civic body was eyeing their land for the zone instead of looking at the areas where real estate developers were launching commercial and residential projects.

Protesting against the master plan the farmers of the seven villages launched an agitation, following which the two municipalities council decided to withdraw the master plan.