TISS audit of Amaravati land pooling scheme raises credibility concerns
As CRDA hands over land pooling social audit duties to the institute, questions mount over whether farmers' concerns or international funding is the top priority
The decision to entrust the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) with the social audit of Andhra Pradesh's Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) — a cornerstone of the Amaravati capital project — carries distinct political, financial, and social undercurrents.
Also read: Andhra Council: Uproar over 'display of Sri Venkateswara Swamy pics' by YSRCP members
Launched in 2014, the scheme acquired over 34,000 acres from farmers. Yet, over a decade on, it remains mired in allegations, delays, and inequities.
While the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) appears to be seeking greater transparency through the TISS appointment, observers in the state, who have been monitoring the development of Amaravati, are asking whether it amounts to little more than optics.
Gathering pace
Construction in the capital is moving at a pace, and that is welcome, said the observers. But the coalition government has failed to address the concerns of farmers who gave up their land, said CPI National Council member Muppalla Nageswara Rao. He stressed that plots must be allotted as promised, registrations completed, and CRDA permissions issued so construction can begin.
"Unless this is done immediately, the prospects of a second phase of land acquisition proceeding smoothly are dim," he said.
He also criticised Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for pushing a second and third round of land pooling when the first phase's commitments remain unfulfilled. "This is nothing but adding to the farmers' pain," he said.
Why TISS, and why now?
Two reasons appear to have driven the CRDA's choice of TISS for a social audit of the land pooling process.
First, securing a Rs 15,000 crore loan from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) requires mandatory independent social and environmental assessments.
Second, there appears to be a need to lend credibility to the process amid farmer protests and coercive acquisition allegations.
Also read: Andhra's new Polavaram plan puts it on collision course with Telangana
As far back as 2017, requesters before the World Bank Inspection Panel flagged coercion and financial injustice within the LPS. In 2025, farmers from Mandadam in Guntur district filed fresh complaints with both lenders against the CRDA.
Against this backdrop, the TISS appointment looks less like genuine reform and more like a strategy to smoothen the path to funding, said urban planning experts.
A clean chit in the making?
A research assistant vacancy posted on the TISS website in May 2025 said the Social Audit of Land Assembly in the Amaravati Capital Region was being funded by the CRDA itself. Since the CRDA is itself funding the audit, the independence of the exercise is questionable.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had earlier found that LPS objectives remained unmet and flagged wasteful expenditure of Rs 2,244 crore. That CRDA chose to outsource scrutiny to a third party rather than address problems directly has drawn criticism, with observers seeing it as a way of sidestepping accountability.
Allegations of coercive acquisition, caste-based targeting, and farmer income losses have circulated since 2016. Dalits and landless labourers have allegedly lost livelihoods. It is reported that land valuations were applied unevenly. The CAG noted that expert committee recommendations were ignored and nearly 70 per cent of the land was pooled regardless — a decision that proved financially burdensome.
Farmers' concerns
Political turbulence — alternating TDP and YSRCP governments — stalled the project for years, during which farmers held over 1,900 days of protests. The TISS appointment now appears to be a tool to officially acknowledge these issues while attempting to pacify farmers, rather than fix the underlying problems, said the observers.
Whether it yields results will depend on whether TISS's recommendations are actually implemented. Unless the government acts swiftly, Amaravati risks remaining not a "people's capital" but a political chessboard, said one of the experts.
(This article was originally published in The Federal Andhra Pradesh.)
