Amaravati farmers seek President's permission for 'mercy killing'

Distressed by the idea of three capitals in Andhra Pradesh, as proposed by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, and the shifting of capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam, the farmers of the region have written a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday seeking "stall this process of shifting capital city" or else grant them "permission for mercy killing."

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'Our pride has been mocked and our hearts are in deep pain'

"Sir, we are deeply pained by the sinister attitude of the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Our pride has been mocked and our hearts are in deep pain," the letter written by farmers of Navuluru to President Kovind read.

"In this context, we request your Excellency to intervene and stall this process of shifting the capital city from Amaravati. Else, we request your Excellency as the Constitutional Head, to grant us permission for mercy killing."

"We intend to die because all doors for a solution have been closed and the Government of Andhra Pradesh is pursuing revenge against the people of Amaravati," it added.

The letter began by saying that the farmers had come "forward voluntarily to provide lands for Amaravati" after the state's division in 2014. The finalisation of Amaravati as the capital was done by all the political parties unanimously passing the resolution in whose backdrop the farmers gave their lands, according to the letter. Reminding the promise made by the incumbent Chief Minister, the letter said, "During 2019 election campaign, the present Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy congratulated us and promised that Amaravati would be continued as the capital city of Andhra Pradesh. However, once he came to power Jagan has backtracked."

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'MLAs of state govt not paying heed to farmers woes'

Through the letter, the farmers have accused the ministers, MLAs of the state government of not paying heed to their woes and of "issuing irresponsible statements like Amaravati is a desert, graveyard etc." and of using brute force to crush the protest being staged by them. It ends with a heart-rendering appeal, "Probably, never in the history of the world, no community would have applied for collective mercy killing. We are asking this supposedly strange demand only to highlight our plight."

On December 27, the Andhra Pradesh cabinet had deferred taking a decision on relocating the capital, saying it wanted to wait for the report of an international consulting firm, which is expected to submit the report on January 3. Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy had indicated on December 17 that Andhra Pradesh could have three capitals as decentralisation was a real concept.

The existing capital Amaravati, which is only in the basic stages of development could become the "Legislative Capital", the port city Visakhapatnam the "Executive Capital" and Kurnool the "Judiciary Capital", he had said.

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(With agency inputs)