If YSR Congress party government headed by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has its way, Amaravati, the present capital region of Andhra Pradesh, will no more be in the records.
The name “Amaravati” will be confined only to the temple town that has been in the state history, but will not cover 29 villages that are hitherto part of the capital region, according to a report that appeared in a section of media.
According to the draft bill seeking to repeal Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority, the government is planning to constitute Vijaywada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangalagiri Urban Development Authority (VGTMUDA) and merge all the areas falling under Amaravati region under this authority.
So, the villages which are hitherto being referred to collectively as Amaravati would be treated as part of this urban development authority and would be part of Guntur district.
The report said the new bill also seeks to dump the present Amaravati master plan prepared by Singapore government. So, there would be no more theme cities, no outer ring road, no mega townships, no expressways, no iconic bridge over Krishna river and no blue-green city development model.
The VGTMUDA will prepare a revised masterplan with necessary modifications. All the loans taken by the APCRDA for the capital loan would be transferred to VGTMUDA, for which the state government would stand a guarantor.
Those who had bought Amaravati bonds and other financial instruments can redeem them or the government will do their premature termination.
All the employees of APCRDA would be transferred to the new authority or to the other local bodies in the state or to any other government department or agency.
