The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh , YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, said Tuesday afternoon that Visakhapatnam would serve as the state’s new capital, canceling plans to create Amaravati on the banks of the Krishna river.
Nine years after the state of Telangana was split off from its territory and awarded Hyderabad as its capital, the announcement of a new capital for Andhra has been made.
The head of the YSR Congress remarked at a gathering in Delhi: “I’d like to extend an invitation to Visakhapatnam, which will soon serve as our capital. In the next few months, I’ll be moving to Visakhapatnam as well.”
On March 3–4 (in Visakhapatnam), “We’re organizing a global summit… an investors summit,” the chief minister said. “I want to take this opportunity to personally invite each of you to the summit… and request each of you to not only come but to also put in a good word, a strong word, to colleagues abroad.”
He urged investors to visit Andhra Pradesh and observe how simple it is to conduct business there at the International Diplomatic Alliance meeting in Delhi.
Over the past few years, there has been conflict on the social, legal, economic, and political levels over the choice of Andhra Pradesh’s new capital, for which more than 33,000 acres of land had been purchased from farmers in the Amaravati area.
Chandrababu Naidu, who was the chief minister at the time, declared in 2015 that Amaravati would serve as the nation’s capital; nevertheless, three capital cities were suggested five years later.
According to that plan, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool would join Amaravati, with the latter serving as the legislative capital, Kurnool as the judicial capital, and Visakhapatnam serving as the executive capital of Andhra Pradesh.
In March of last year, the Andhra Pradesh High Court issued a decision rejecting the proposal to have three capitals and ordering the government to instead develop Amaravati. According to the court, the legislature lacks the power to make such choices.
The state promised a “comprehensive, full, and better” proposal in November, but instead revoked the law that was supposed to designate three capital cities.
However, in an unexpected turn of events, the Supreme Court stayed that judgment, stating that “courts are not governments” and that the High Court had overstepped its bounds.
Meanwhile, amid the back-and-forth over a new capital, Amaravati became the epicenter of a land scam, an allegation leveled by the ruling YSR Congress against its rival and former ruling outfit, the Telugu Desam Party.
