In a big relief to around 20,000 farmers who had given their farm lands for construction of Amaravati, the brand new capital of Andhra Pradesh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced considering exemption of capital gains tax for them. He promised that the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre would be a partner in the building of Amaravati.
This measure would benefit the farmers to the tune of around Rs 10 lakh to Rs 30 lakh, depending on the commercial value of their plots measuring 1,000 sq yards per acre they had given for the capital city, under the land pooling scheme (LPS).
Jaitley was on Friday addressing a gathering of farmers who had given their lands for the capital city after laying the foundation stone for the Andhra Pradesh Administrative Complex at Lingayapalem village in Guntur district of Amaravati limits.
As Jaitley told the farmers that he would see to it that the proposal was cleared by the finance ministry officials once he went back to Delhi, all those present on the dais, including Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu, Ashok Gajapathi Raji, Y.S. Chowdary and farmers cheered loudly.
Jaitley was happy that AP was able to lay the foundation stone for its permanent administrative complex which includes the Raj Bhawan, High Court, State Secretariat, Legislative Assembly and Council, Chief Minister’s residence and ministers’ offices and residences and other key blocks within 30 months after the state was bifurcated.
On 22 October 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Amaravati city.
“But remember, now he is not alone in this task. The entire Central government is with him and we are going to provide funds to the construction of the capital city. We have full faith in the speed of the Chief Minister and are sure that he can complete the construction well on time,” said Jaitley, much to the delight of Chandrababu Naidu who thanked him with folded hands.
The Union Finance Minister also told the public that the Centre had decided to give around Rs 2.03 lakh crore to AP in the first five years, till 2019, as part of the devolution of the funds, as against Rs 93,000 crore given by the previous UPA government between 2004 and 2014. “We may not have given AP special status, but will fulfil each and every promise made to it”.
Chandrababu Naidu badly needed the assurances and the compliments from the Finance Minister as he was under intense heat from the opposition YSR Congress and newly emerged Jana Sena party led by Tollywood hero Pawan Kalyan on the issue of special status. Pawan Kalyan is going to address a second public rally in Anantapur on 6 November, after his Kakinada rally on 7 September.
The new administrative complex will be constructed on 950 acres at a cost of Rs 5,060 crore in the next two years, positively by the end of 2018.
Already, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 1,500 crore and Jaitley on Friday promised to release another Rs 1,000 crore in the next few weeks. Another Rs 1,000 crore were released for stormwater drains in Vijayawada and Guntur cities.