Has YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan R developed any second thoughts over the formation of three capitals for the state?
Though the chief minister has been giving indications to go ahead with the three capitals plan subject to the cases in the state high court, a latest decision of the government has given rise to a doubt as to whether he has changed his mind in this regard.
The latest decision is to expand the high court building in Amaravati in view of the growing needs of the state judiciary. The high court annexe is going to come up adjacent to the existing building at Nelapadu village.
The Amaravati Metropolitan Region Development Authority (AMRDA), which was constituted following the dissolution of the previous Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA), has called for tenders to construct the additional building complex for the high court.
The building was designed for six stories, but for now, tenders were called for the construction of only four storied building at a cost of Rs 29.40 crore. The building is expected to be completed within six months.
The construction is being taken up as per the suggestions of the high court which felt that the existing premises is not sufficient for all the benches dealing with a number of cases.
This has given rise to the doubt as to why the Jagan government is going in for the construction of new high court building when it has proposed to shift the entire high court to Kurnool, which has been designated as the judicial capital.
In fact, the Jagan government has already given several representations to the Centre seeking shifting of judicial capital to Kurnool, but the Centre said the decision has to be approved by the state high court.
It is not exactly known whether the judiciary has expressed its disinterest in shifting to Kurnool and continue to stay put in Amaravati. That could be one reason for the government to construct a new complex for the high court.
Otherwise, if the state is keen moving the high court to Kurnool, it would not have taken up the new construction. If the government dropped the judicial capital plan, then it would mean the state would have only two capitals – Visakhapatnam and Amaravati.
Or has the Jagan completely dropped the three capitals plan and decided to continue with Amaravati as the capital?
This doubt is also being raised in the wake of the recent Independence Day speech of Jagan, in which he conveniently avoided mentioning of three capitals plan.
What exactly is Jagan’s plan? Let us watch out for further developments in this regard.
