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No move to shift Andhra capital to Vizag immediately, Jagan govt tells HC
A petition in the HC cited documents to claim the state government was planning to move capital overnight.
The Andhra Pradesh government will not take any steps to shift the capital city from its present location of Amaravati till the state legislature passes bills pertaining to decentralisation of administration and repeal of AP capital region development authority act.
Advocate General Subrahmanyam Sriram, arguing on behalf of the state government, gave an assurance to this effect to the state high court on Friday. He sought 10 days’ time to file an affidavit in the court in this regard.
Sriram told the court that the government would not make any moves on shifting of administrative capital to Visakhapatnam and judicial capital to Kurnool from the existing capital city of Amaravati, until the legislations were enacted by the state legislature for decentralization of administration and abolishing of Amaravati capital region authority.
A division bench comprising chief justice J K Maheshwari and judges A V Sesha Sai and M Satyanarayana Murthy, which was hearing a petition filed by Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi (Amaravati Protection Committee), asked the Advocate General to record his statement or submit an affidavit within 10 days, stating that the capital would not be shifted from Amaravati till the bills were passed.
The two bills were originally passed in the state assembly on January 20, but were stalled in the state legislative council two days later. Legislative council chairman M A Shariff referred the two bills to the select committee using his discretionary power, but the legislature secretary refused to constitute the select committee on procedural grounds.
Meanwhile, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government adopted a resolution in the assembly abolishing the legislative council and sent the same to the Centre for approval. The council will get abolished if the Centre passes a bill in the Parliament to that effect.
Arguing on behalf of Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi, advocate U Muralidhar Rao brought to the notice of the high court that the government was making attempts to shift the capital overnight notwithstanding the present Covid-19 pandemic situation.
He submitted to the court the minutes of an internal meeting of executive committee of AP Secretariat Employees Association on shifting of the Secretariat to Visakhapatnam and also media reports about YSRC parliamentary party leader V Vijay Sai Reddy announcing the shifting of administrative capital to Visakhapatnam at the earliest.
The high court bench said if the government goes ahead with the capital shift despite the assurance given by the Advocate General, the petitioners could invoke urgency through the high court registry and request an earlier hearing before the bench.
