On the night of 20 January, the Andhra Pradesh assembly has passed the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of all Regions Bill 2020 and the Capital Region Development Authority Repeal Bill 2020. The said bills tend to decentralize the state’s capital between Amaravati, Visakhapatnam, and Kurnool.
As per reports, the state government plans to build the executive capital in Visakhapatnam, legislative in Amaravati and judicial in Kurnool. This has been decided by the recommendation of an expert committee appointed by the state government in December last year, which proposed Visakhapatnam to be made the executive capital, Kurnool to be a legal capital since the high court located there, and further suggested Amaravati could house the governor’s office and the state assembly, making it the legislative capital.
The state cabinet also decided to increase the ex-gratia being paid to the farmers of the Amaravati region from Rs.2500 to Rs.5000 per month. Further, it has approved the proposal to establish the Amaravati Metropolitan Development Authority (AMDA) in the place of AP Capital Regional Development Authority (APCRDA), which was established during the Chandrababu Naidu’s government, to develop Amaravati as a global capital.
After the AP assembly passed the two bills, several Telugu Desam Party politicians, including the former Chief Minister of AP Chandrababu Naidu, were detained in the night while trying to march against the government’s decision.
During the assembly session, the Chief Minister of AP – Jagan Mohan Reddy, said that “Since Independence, for almost six times we lost the capital and we are the only state in the country to undergo these circumstances. Even as per the (AP Reorganization) bifurcation act, despite having Hyderabad as the common capital city for 10 years, we lost it for the mistakes of Naidu.”
Meanwhile, farmers in the capital city of Amaravati have been continuously protesting against the proposed three capital plan of Jagan Mohan Reddy, since they gave around 33,000 acres of farmland for the development of Amaravati as a global city capital of AP, during the chief ministership of Chandrababu Naidu.
