Assembly to take decision on new capital

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy called for a special session of the Legislative Assembly and Council for three days from Monday to take a final decision on shifting the state capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam. The Chief Minister is expected to introduce a Bill paving for three capitals for Andhra Pradesh, one for executive, legislative at Amaravati and judiciary at Kurnool.

A major step in the direction of shifting of capital from Amaravati was taken at an emergency Cabinet meeting held at Tadepalli in the limits of Amaravati on Saturday afternoon, where it was decided to repeal the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) Act which designated Amaravati as the capital region.

The withdrawal of the law became necessary as legal experts in the government had told the Chief Minister that the shifting of the capital from Amaravati cannot be implemented unless the CRDA law which specifies a capital region for Andhra Pradesh was repealed. The amended law making it Amaravati Development Authority Bill would be introduced in the Assembly’s special session, said sources.

The Jagan government has decided to introduce the Bill repealing the CRDA law as the Money Bill which doesn’t require the passage in the Legislative Council where the Opposition TDP is in majority. The Bill would be sent to Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan for his consent to be tabled in the Assembly on Monday. The ruling YSR Congress has 152 MLAs support in the 175 strong Assembly. The Cabinet also concurred with the recommendations of a high-powered committee of ministers and officials to decentralise the capital to all three regions.

The high-powered committee led by Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath went into two reports submitted by the C.N. Rao panel and the Boston Consulting Group which, too, felt that there was a need to shift the capital from the present Amaravati to decentralise the administration in Andhra Pradesh. These panels made several other recommendations for developing all 13 districts of the state.

Jagan is planning to offer a reasonable package to the farmers who are protesting shifting of Amaravati, to ease tensions in the area. According to sources, the government might give back farmers their lands given for the capital city project, besides bestowing some rights to develop a portion of them into commercial purpose.       

Already, the government has returned the assigned lands (taken from the scheduled castes and tribes) forcibly taken from the owners by the previous TDP government. Now, a special authority would be set up to speed up the process of returning the lands and restoring their title rights too, said a senior official in the government.

Even as the Jagan government is readying to officially announce the shifting of the capital by next week, the protests by farmers who had given their lands for Amaravati reached a crescendo on Saturday. As many as four youth climbed on cell phone towers in Amaravati limits and demanded that the capital should be retained at the present place.

As some Opposition parties, including TDP and the Left, have threatened to hold a Chalo Assembly rally to the legislature complex on Monday, the police have clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC. The police commissioner of Amaravati issued notices to all farmers in 29 villages within the limits of Amaravati to keep away from any protests during the Assembly session next week.

This region is on boil with the recent police crackdown on women farmers who tried to march towards the CM office in Secretariat at Amaravati last week. The High Court is hearing a petition on the police excesses.