Andhra Pradesh's three capital bill gets Governor's nod

Vijayawada: In a victory for the Andhra Pradesh government in the state capital issue, Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan approved the contentious three capitals Bill on 31 July. The Governor also gave his assent to the Bill to scrap Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA).

It may be recalled that the Assembly secretariat had sent two Bills to the Governor for his approval over two weeks ago. One Bill sought to decentralise the administration by establishing three capitals - the executive capital in Visakhapatnam, the legislative capital in Amaravati, and the judicial capital in Kurnool. The other Bill sought to abolish the CRDA that was created during the Telugu Desam Party's rule to build the state capital in Amaravati.

The Opposition parties, including the TDP, had written to the Governor urging him not to approve the Bills. They alleged that the Bills betray the promises made to the farmers of Amaravati. Ending the controversy over the three-capital debate, the Governor approved both the Bills on Friday.

Meanwhile, farmers who had given their land under the land pooling scheme for the construction of the capital in Amaravati have approached the court. They argue that they gave away their land only because they were promised the state capital would come up in Amaravati.

The previous TDP government had pooled about 30,000 acres of land. However, when the YSRCP came to power in 2019, the government decided to create three separate capitals with Visakhapatnam as the administrative capital. According to experts, as some cases are still pending in the High Court against the creation of three capitals, the state government will have to wait for the court’s orders before taking any step.