Now that the YSRCP government has given enough indications of scrapping Amaravathi capital city project, questions arise over what would be the next move of AP CM YS Jaganmohan Reddy on the issue of AP capital.
AP government official sources say Jagan is seriously considering to follow the report submitted by Sivaramakrishnan committee on new capital.
This committee was constituted on March 28, 2014 by previous UPA government after AP Reorganisation Act was passed in Parliament bifurcating AP and creating new state of Telangana, to study and recommned the alternatives for a new capital for Andhra Pradesh
The committee submitted its report in August 2014 but then AP CM N Chandrababu Naidu simply ignored this report and took a decision on his own to construct new capital in Amaravathi.
The committee has recommended that there is no need for a 'single super capital city' like Hyderabad for AP in this new age of communication system where physical distances will have no role in running a government.
The committee headed by former IAS officer K Sivaramakrishnan, instead, suggested to the government that the capital functions and various government departments could be distributed across multiple locations of the state to ignite a distributed development as opposed to the 'Hyderabad model' of locating everything at one place
The committee travelled 11 districts and gathered information and opinion of people in various parts of the state regarding the capital city issue.
Going further, the committee has opposed, in particular, the AP government’s inclination to develop the new capital between Vijayawada and Guntur, citing the region’s significant contribution to rice production and also the potential displacement of a largely agrarian population of Krishna and Guntur districts if these delta lands are allowed to become a target for real estate speculation.
Apart from asking the government to locate different establishments, including the secretariat, legislature and the high court in different locations and cities, the committee has also identified three specific regions away from the Vijayawada-Guntur region for the development of industry, logistics and social infrastructure keeping in line with the inherent potential of these areas.
“The committee does not consider a single large capital city as a feasible option available to Andhra Pradesh now. The existing concentration in Hyderabad of legislature, the courts and the executive comprising numerous ministries, departments, commissionerates and directorates has happened over several years. This concentration has itself been a major bone of contention in the process of bifurcation,” the committee observed.
In keeping with the dominant objective of decentralised development of the state, the committee has identified three regions or sub-regions, namely Visakhapatnam region, Rayalaseema arc and the Kalahasti-Nadikudi spine.
It wants AP high court to be set up in Vizag along with departments related to industry, fisheries among other things. Similarly, it has suggested locating different government departments in different districts of AP.
It has specifically named some places on the periphery of Vijayawada-Guntur-Mangalagiri-Tenali (VGTM) development authority limits for locating the facilities including state secretariat, chief minister’s office and Raj Bhavan considering the profile of the middle Andhra.
This report has been gathering dust for the past five years and AP government sources say Jagan now wants to bring this report back to limelight and implement it in 'letter and spirit' to achieve balanced growth of all regions in AP instead of adopting 'Hyderabad model' of concentrated development in a single location.
