AP to pay center for Forest lands!

The Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act allows the State government to de-notify the forest lands for using them for the upcoming state capital construction. However it is said that the government has to pay net present value (NPV), compensatory afforestation and other charges to the Union ministry of environment and forests. It is estimated that about Rs 10.50 lakh per acre towards NPV, afforestation and other charges.

As per the Supreme Court Empowered Committee guidelines and various provisions of the Forest Act, the state government will also have to give an equivalent area of land at some other location in the state in lieu to the used forest lands.The state government is however confident that the Central government will either write off this amount or pay it from its own funds since the Center has agreed to fund the new state capital.

The state government had already began the process of de-notifying the forest land in 20-km radius outside Vijayawada. It is also known to our readers that the government had selected 17 villages in Guntur district for the first phase of Land pooling from the farmers. The land collections works for the capital are in full swing.