The new YSR Congress Government is drawing flak for the reported decision of the World Bank to withdraw its proposal to lend more than Rs 2,000 crores to the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, Amaravati, and the reactions are emerging not only from the opposition Telugu Desam Party leaders but sections of general public as well, especially those who have invested in real estate in the vicinity of the new capital.

‘Driving away investors’

Telugu Desam Party leader and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu even mentioned it in passing while participating in a debate in the State Assembly on power purchase agreements on Friday. "The ill-conceived, vindictive policies of the new Government are driving away investors and even the World Bank has dropped the proposal to lend money to Amaravati project," he remarked.

Elsewhere, he said the real estate had crashed in Amaravati area thanks to the Chief Minister and all works had come to a grinding halt. "The farmerswho parted with 33,000 acres for the new capital and the general public all over the State are agitated over the future of Amaravati. Labourers are not getting work there and are migrating to other places. But CM Jaganmohan Reddy is bent on only one thing - getting even with me and other TDP leaders for alleged scams," he said and added that the State could have got the World Bank loan for a mere 4 per cent or so and retired costly debt incurred on taking up projects in Amaravati. "The State has lost a great opportunity."

It may be noted that the Chief Minister, soon after getting elected, made a statement that "Amaravati is a huge scam in which the former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and his benamis are directly involved. We will conduct a probe and place the facts before the public of the State."

Rebuttal

However, State Minister for Urban Development B. Satyanarayana denied in the Assembly that the Government had issued any orders to halt the works in the core capital area of Amaravati. "We have not issued any orders to stop works in the capital area. The fact of the matter is that only 10 per cent of the works have shown 50 per cent progress and the rest have not progressed beyond 5 per cent in spite of the publicity blitz of the former chief minister. We are committed to the development of Amaravati and we have allocated Rs 500 crores for the purpose in the Budget," he said.

He said the total cost of the works in progress in the capital area is approximately Rs 35,800 crores or so.

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