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‘State can decide capital’s location’: Centre boosts Andhra CM Jagan Reddy
The opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh opposes shifting the capital from Amravati to Visakhapatnam on grounds that it will cause huge loss to farmers who had given their land.
The Centre on Tuesday categorically declared that it is the prerogative of a state to decide the location of its capital city, indicating that it will not interfere in the decision of the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh to shift the administrative capital of the state from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
“It is for each state to decide its capital within its territory,” Union minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai said, in a written reply to an unstarred question raised by Jayadev Galla, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) lawmaker from Guntur parliamentary constituency, during the question hour in Lok Sabha.
Galla asked whether the Central government had taken note of the recent decision taken by the Andhra Pradesh chief minister to set up three capitals for the state and what the Centre’s reaction was for the same. He sought to know whether the manner in which the three capitals are being formed would be of any help to the state and the people.
The MP further asked whether the Centre would advise the state government not to resort to such decisions, which would not only vitiate the investment climate but would also be a great loss to thousands of farmers who had given their land for construction of new capital Amaravati.
In his written reply, the minister said the state government had notified Amaravati as its capital city through a government order dated April 23, 2015. “Recently, media reports have appeared indicating the State Government’s decision to create three capitals for the State of Andhra Pradesh. It is for each State to decide its capital within its territory,” the minister replied.
Senior YSRC leader and Andhra Pradesh minister for municipal administration and urban development Botsa Satyanaryana welcomed the statement made by the Union minister. “We have been telling right from the beginning that location of the capital city is purely a state subject and the Centre has no role whatsoever in this regard. This has been endorsed by the Centre today,” he said.
Former TDP legislator and party spokesman Bonda Umamaheshwar Rao said the Centre had clarified that Amaravati had already been notified as the capital of Andhra Pradesh on April 23, 2015 itself.
“It is true that the Centre had no role in deciding the capital city of a state. But it also acknowledged the fact that Andhra had already notified Amaravati as the capital city and it was included in the country’s political map as well. Now, the Jagan government is creating three capitals on the pretext that there is no gazette notification of Amaravati,” the TDP leader said.
Interestingly, the Union minister’s statement was made at a time when a delegation of Amaravati farmers’ joint action committee was in New Delhi to seek Central intervention in stalling the state government’s three capitals plan.
The JAC leaders met vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu to represent their issue. They also sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to request them to stall the shifting of the executive capital from Amaravati to Viskahapatnam.
The Andhra assembly on January 20 passed two crucial bills – one to repeal AP Capital Region Development Authority formed to develop Amaravati as the capital city and second one on decentralisation of administration by creating three capitals for the state.
The bills were later stalled in the state legislative council which referred the same to the select committee for further study. Peeved at this, the Jagan government adopted a resolution in the state assembly last week abolishing the legislative council.
