Tension grips Amaravati over Jaganmohan's proposal to have three State capitals

The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet is all set to meet on Friday to discuss the report of the expert committee on the capital issue and take a decision, as protests continued for the ninth day on Thursday in the area.

The GN Rao committee has recommended the setting up of three capitals for the State — the legislative capital at Amaravati (Assembly, HC Bench, Raj Bhavan, etc), judicial capital at Kurnool (High Court) and the executive capital at Visakhapatnam (the State Secretariat). The committee has only endorsed an idea mooted earlier by the Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, in the Assembly nine days ago.

Tension gripped the capital (Amaravati) area on Thursday, as protests continued for the ninth day against the proposal. Farmers and others in the 29 villages in the core capital area, who parted with 33,000 acres for the Capital, came out in large numbers and protested against the proposal.

‘Reconsider the idea’

At one village, a farmer who gave four acres of land attempted suicide, but the police prevented him. The main opposition party, the Telugu Desam, as well as the BJP and the Communists urged the CM to reconsider the proposal and give up the idea.

The proposal has drawn widespread condemnation, even though leaders of several parties in the north-coastal districts and Rayalaseema area welcomed the idea. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 were imposed in the villages and there was heavy police deployment in the area.

Some TDP leaders like Kesineni Nani, MP from Vijayawada, were kept under house arrest as a precautionary measure. Andhra Pradesh High Court advocates boycotted the Court on Thursday and they propose to do the same on Friday. They said there was no such thing as a judicial capital and it was an absurd idea.

Visakha festival

Vijayasai Reddy, the YSR Congress leader and member of the Rajya Sabha, said in Visakhapatnam on Thursday that there would be a grand welcome for the Chief Minister when he visits the city on Saturday to inaugurate Visakha Utsav, as “he has announced the executive capital at Visakhapatnam. The people of the north-coastal area are grateful to him.”

His remark has come in for condemnation by TDP leader D Umamaheswara Rao. “That means it is a done deal. Even before the Cabinet meet, Vijayasai Reddy deems it fit to talk as though the Secretariat has already been shifted to Vizag. Even before the GN Rao committee submitted its report, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy deemed it fit to announce the proposal in the Assembly. They are giving the go-by to all democratic procedures and norms.”