NE NEWS SERVICE
VIJAYAWADA, JAN 20
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has taken a calculated political risk by formally enacting a law establishing three capitals in the state — legislative, executive and judicial — in Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool, respectively.
Till now, the YSRC government had sought to project that certain capital functions would be decentralised and spread out. Retired bureaucrat, G.N. Rao, whose committee had recommended the decentralisation of administration, had told media persons that a few capital functions would only be performed from Visakhapatnam, which could not be equated with the shifting of capital.
But Chief Minister Reddy went ahead with introducing a Bill in the State Assembly on Monday, which clearly stated that the government would have three seats of governance. It is for the first time after the bifurcation of the state that the Andhra Pradesh government gave any legislative backing to the location of the capital.
Former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had avoided officially notifying Amaravati as the state capital in the Assembly till he stepped down.
Significantly, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government went ahead with the Bills for new capitals as well as repealing the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) Act, even before the AP High Court-set deadline of 2.30 pm on Monday to receive grievances from farmers ended. The matter was brought to the court’s notice, but no order was passed.
The state administration, however, is divided over the procedure to be followed post-enactment for locating new capitals.
“The Raj Bhavan, the principal seat of executive, has to be re-located and this requires notification from the Centre. Secondly, the Bill introduced on Monday says that relocation of the principal seat of High Court would be done by the procedure prescribed under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. The same procedure has to be followed for the remaining two capitals,” a senior bureaucrat involved in drafting the Reorganisation Act explained.
The AP Reorganisation Act declared that Hyderabad would remain joint capital till 2024 and the Centre would initiate the process of locating a new capital for AP by appointing a committee.
Accordingly, the Sivaramakrishnan Committee was appointed but the process was abruptly ended with Naidu deciding to build Amaravati as capital.
Sources in CMO, however, said adequate care was taken to avoid legal tussle. “If the procedure requires Centre’s clearance, we will get it,” a senior official said. To strengthen its case, the state heavily banked on recommendations of the Sivaramakrishnan Committee in building its theory for decentralisation of administration.
Finance minister B. Rajendranath Reddy slammed former AP chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for going against the recommendations of the Sivaramakrishnan Committee on forming a new capital for AP.
“Mr Chandrababu Naidu had done the exact opposite of what the Sivaramakrishnan Committee had recommended. The committee had opposed damaging the ecosystem and destroying agricultural fields for new capital. We want to rectify the previous government’s actions by following the recommendations of various committees, including Sivaramakrishnan,” finance minister B. Rajendranath Reddy said.
Naidu condemns house arrest of former MLAs, TDP leaders ahead of special session of Andhra assembly
TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu has condemned the house arrest of his party leaders and former MLAs ahead of the special session of the state assembly on three capitals issue put forward by Andhra Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
“House arrest of party leaders and Amaravati JAC leaders is condemnable. Suppression of public voice is undemocratic and against the Constitution. Even during the Emergency, it was much better,” Naidu said.
In the wake of ”Chalo Assembly (Let’s march to assembly)” call against the state government by Amaravati Parirakahana Samiti and TDP, the police have detained and house arrested TDP leaders from across the state late night.
“Every citizen has the right to protest, and nobody has the power to prevent fundamental rights. YSRCP government is acting in such a way that the fundamental constitutional principles are being violated,” he said.
“Police using brute force is highly condemnable. The house arrests and illegal arrests must be immediately stopped. They should be immediately freed, he added.
Also, the TDP state unit president K Kala Venkatrao has strongly condemned the house arrests of their party leaders. Public agitation cannot be stopped by police action, he said in a statement adding that the YSRCP government is acting in an undemocratic manner.
Former minister and TDP leader Nakka Anand Babu has also been house arrested at his residence in Guntur. TDP MLC Buddha Venkanna is also house arrested. As there is no session of the AP legislative council, the MLC is about to take part in Chalo Assembly agitation. As a precautionary measure, the police has carried out the arrests.
Former minister Prattipati Pullarao was house arrested in Chilakaluri, while the TDP leader K Ravi Kumar, former MLAs Ramana Murty and Venkataramana were arrested in Srikakulam. Former MLAs Kondababu and Anantalakshmi were house arrested in Kakinada.
Several protests had erupted in the state, the GN Rao Committee, which was set up by the Andhra Pradesh government to look into the suggestion of three capitals had earlier made a favourable recommendation saying the move will help in decentralising development and putting the available resources to the best use.
It proposed Visakhapatnam as the executive capital and Kurnool the judicial capital while retaining Amaravati as the legislative capital.
