Fresh row over Amaravati missing from latest map

Amaravati: With Amaravati missing in India’s latest map released last week, a fresh row broke out in Andhra Pradesh over the future of the state capital.

The map released by the Centre in the wake of creation of Union Territories (UTs) of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh shows all states with their capitals but Andhra Pradesh was depicted without its capital.

As it comes amid the continuing uncertainty over the future of Amaravati, opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) launched a fresh attack on YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government.

TDP leaders cited this as a proof of Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government dumping Amaravati as the state capital.

TDP spokesman Varla Ramaiah said that the government has decided to relocate the capital city from Amaravati to some other location.

The TDP suspects that YSRCP government conveyed its plans to the Centre and that is the reason for the latest map not showing Amaravati as the state capital.

However, YSRCP Ablamed the previous TDP government for Amaravati not finding a place on the map. Ruling party MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, who represents Mangalagiri constituency in Amaravati, said Naidu government had not issued a gazette notification to declare Amaravati as the state capital.

“This shows Chandrababu Naidu was never sincere about developing Amaravati. He neither built a house here nor his government developed any permanent structures,” he said.

Amaravati is the brainchild of former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who selected the region on the banks of Krishna river and close to Vijayawada as the capital of new Andhra Pradesh after Telangana was carved out as a separate state as its capital in 2014.

Though Hyderabad was declared a common capital of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh under Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014 for a period of 10 years, then chief minister Naidu shifted the administration to Vijayawada in 2015 and decided to build Amaravati as the new capital.

Naidu vowed to develop Amaravati as one of the best cities in the world and roped in Singapore to prepare its design and acquired 33,000 acres from farmers under land pooling scheme.

However, the development works initiated last year came to a halt with Naidu’s TDP losing power.

After coming to power in May, Jagan government decided to review all major projects launched during TDP rule and alleged that Naidu indulged in insider trading over Amaravati benefiting his family members and TDP leaders close to him.

Since then both sides have been targeting each other. The latest row cropped up at a time when an experts’ panel constituted by Jagan government is eliciting people’s opinion from across the state over development of state capital.

The government has made it clear that a decision on whether to continue developing Amaravati as the state capital or choose some other location would be based on the panel’s report.

 Published on: Nov 4, 2019 at 21:54 IST

IANS