Visakhapatnam is all set to become the new capital of Andhra Pradesh. The Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress government is expected to officially announce its decision to this effect by the end of this month after a special session of the legislative Assembly. Two major committees appointed to look into this issue have unequivocally endorsed shifting the capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
The US-based Boston Consulting Group (BCG) which studied the location of the Andhra capital city has suggested that Visakhapatnam is ideally suited to be the administrative headquarter of the Andhra Pradesh government while allotting some offices and other wings of governance to Amaravati and Kurnool. The BCG panel submitted its report to Chief Minister Jagan on Friday evening at Amaravati.
The BCG report titled “Balanced and Inclusive Growth (BIG) in Andhra Pradesh” suggested two options for “the distributed capital model”. The first one is to set up executive capital at Visakhapatnam with the Secretariat, some sessions of Assembly, a bench of High Court and some government departments, while a session of Assembly and a High Court bench at Amaravati and full bench of High Court and judicial bodies at Kurnool.
The second option is to locate all executive wings including Secretariat, CM office and Raj Bhavan and a session of Assembly at Visakhapatnam and High Court and all judicial tribunals at Kurnool. As both the options favour Visakhapatnam as the main seat of governance, Chief Minister Jagan is veering round to its recommendations, sources said.
Incidentally, another experts committee led by retired IAS officer G.N. Rao too submitted its report last week suggesting setting up of the capital at Visakhapatnam while leaving the Assembly to Amaravati and High Court to Kurnool. The contents of these two panels are in tune with Jagan’s statement in the Assembly last month that Andhra Pradesh can have three capitals like some other countries in the world.
The BCG felt that the model of Amaravati as planned by previous Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP government would neither be practical nor feasible. “Constructing a capital at a cost of Rs 1.10 lakh crore with around 85% of it as borrowings will be huge financial burden,” said the group’s report.
The BCG rubbished claims of former Chief Minister Naidu that Amaravati would be a self-financing capital. “To mobilise around Rs 90,000 crore, the government will have to sell at least 5,000 acres of land acquired for the capital at a price of Rs 20 crore per acre and it will take at least another 15 to 20 years. Meanwhile, the interest burden will be huge and unviable to a state already burdened with Rs 1 lakh crore debt.”
The BCG report said that as many as seven states in India have their executive capitals in one city and the HCs in another city. “Several countries in the world, too, follow this model to ensure equal distribution of offices among all regions.” The group argued for making efforts to see that people should not travel all the way to the head offices for every work and need.
The reports of BCG and G.N. Rao would be studied by a high-powered committed consisting of seven ministers and three senior secretaries of government before submitting its report to the Chief Minister by 20 January. After that, the government would hold an all-party meeting and a special session of the Assembly to announce its final decision on the capital of Andhra Pradesh.
Two senior leaders of the ruling party—Rajya Sabha member V. Vijaya Sai Reddy and Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy—have made it clear that Visakhapatnam would become the new capital of Andhra Pradesh. Even Chief Minister Jagan on Friday told a public meeting near Vijayawada that his government would rectify the mistakes committed by the previous Naidu regime on the issue of capital city location.
“The previous TDP government has done injustice to all regions while setting up the capital at one place, but we want to rectify it by ensuring equal justice to all regions,” he said. Other leaders of his party too welcomed the government’s mind on shifting the capital from Amaravat to Visakhapatnam and locating the High Court at Kurnool.
These developments have further provoked the agitating farmers who had given their lands for Amaravati and they vowed to intensify their stir. Around 3,000 women farmers had already sent a petition to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking permission for “mercy killing”. The women told the President that they had no option other than killing themselves as they had suffered a lot due to shifting of the capital.