Save soil antu jaggu vasudev all places thirugadu but amaravathi martam raledhu … why ?

February 21, 2023

The proposal to allocate nearly 500 acres of forest land at Trilochanapuram in Ibrahimpatnam mandal near Vijayawada to Isha foundation headed by Yoga guru Jaggi Vasudev has kicked up a row.

Many people are angry that a private organisation is being given so much of land. The visit of Jaggi Vasudev, state minister Ganta Srinivas Rao, the district collector Babu and other forest officials to the site raised several eyebrows.

The proposed site is nearly 22 km from Vijayawada, four km from Vijayawada-Hyderabad national highway and also close to the proposed capital region of the state on the other side of Krishna river. An acre of this land is estimated to cost between Rs 2 crore to Rs 2.5 crore.

Apart from the cost factor, this land has rich flora and fauna and is a famous tourist destination for the neighbouring villagers. There are allegations that some key personnel in the government are playing an active role in giving this precious land to a private organisation against the forest department’s rules and regulations.

They criticised the eagerness of these VIPs to persuade the Union government to denotify this forest land and allot it to a Trust of their choice. “It is a well-known fact that it was difficult to allocate even a few acres to prestigious educational institutes like the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), in a land starved district like Krishna.