Andhra Pradesh: TDP chief urges Governor to take pro-people decision on capital decentralisation bills

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) National President Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday shot off a letter to Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan, requesting him to consider the interests and future aspirations of all sections of the state before giving assent to bills meant for the decentralisation of the state capital.

This comes after the state government sent the Decentralisation of Capital bill and the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) repeal bill for the assent of the Governor on Saturday.

In a six-page letter, the TDP chief said the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council has not rejected but only referred the 'two anti-people bills' to the Select Committee.

When the bills were unlawfully brought before the House for a second time, the Council did not consider the same as they were pending before the Select Committee.

He further said, "the approval of the two bills at this juncture would amount to contempt of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh as the court was in the process of hearing many petitions against the government's ulterior move to shift the capital in the name of decentralised development." Moreover,the two bills violated Section 6 of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 under which the Central government appointed an expert panel at that time and it eventually led to finalisation of Amaravati as a capital city years ago, he said.

Section 6 also suggested that the Centre form the experts panel within six months of the Reorganisation Act coming into effect so that the panel can make recommendations for developing 'a capital' for the residual AP state.

Stating that the bifurcation act passed by the Parliament suggested 'only one capital' for AP, the TDP chief said this was one of the many points to say that the bills under consideration were brought in violation of the country's established Parliamentary practices and traditions.

"The YSRCP regime's thoughtless actions were badly hurting not just the contemporary AP society but also all future generations of the state and their overall emerging aspirations and developmental needs," he said.

The TDP chief asserted that Amaravati was selected as per the Centre's Experts Committee which suggested Vijayawada-Guntur region for the new Capital for AP.

Standing on the banks of the Krishna river, Amaravati has got a long history as the capital of the first Telugu kingdom of the Satavahanas and also as a devotional centre for Shaivism and Buddhism.

The Stupas located in Amaravati were even now world- renowned even as a 'Kalachakra' was organised here under the leadership of the Dalai Lama in 2006.

The local farmers sacrificed their ancestral lands of nearly 33,000 acres under a unique land pooling scheme just for the noble goal of constructing a grand capital city for the state, he said.

Naidu further said that within a short time, Amaravati capital attracted national and international partnerships with prestigious groups like the Singapore Consortium, Japanese engineers, World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Till now, Rs 10,000 crore was spent for developing the basic infrastructure in Amaravati.

This massive project was built on a unique self- financing model that would create huge wealth for the whole State as the city develops by leaps and bounds over time, he added.

Image Credits: PTI