Centrally-located Amaravati crucial for decentralised development: Naidu to Jagan

Vijayawada: TDP national president and former Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, on 7 August, said Y.S Jaganmohan Reddy can achieve truly decentralised development in all three regions of Andhra Pradesh only with the help of a centrally-located capital city like Amaravati.

Mr. Naidu demanded Chief Minister Jagan explain to the people why he had so much hatred for the present state capital Amaravati and was bent upon destroying an excellent project. The YSRCP's actions would only push the state into darkness and destroy the opportunities for future generations, he said.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Naidu said that before the elections all YSRCP leaders, including the Chief Minister, had assured the people that they would not change the state capital. But now they were not even willing to accept TDP's challenge to go for a fresh mandate on the three-capitals plan, the TDP chief alleged, adding the YSRCP leaders have cheated the people of Andhra with their double standards. For this, the people were going to pay a heavy price for a long time to come. At least now, the CM should realise how important it would be to have a vision of ushering in overall growth in the state, Mr. Naidu said.

The TDP chief pointed out that while 132 projects were started in Amaravati, simultaneously 160 additional projects were launched in all the 13 districts of the state. Five clusters were visualised under the Visakhapatnam-Chennai industrial corridor and another three clusters were planned under the Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor. Three megacities, 14 smart cities, three international airports and ports were on the anvil.

Mr. Naidu said that 12 out of the total 15 Central government institutions were given to backward regions of Rayalaseema and north Andhra for balanced development in the state. These included the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management. Seema was converted into a horticulture hub.

Mr. Naidu asserted that decentralisation was not a new concept and Amaravati was actually visualised as a vibrant city to achieve the larger objective to ensure decentralised development in AP. It has got huge potential to create spin-off benefits for all districts in the state. Amaravati has also got an excellent self-financing plan such that it would generate funds from its own valuable land resources to meet its future infrastructural requirements, the TDP supremo claimed.

He said that he had sown the seeds for HiTech City even as some people had made fun of it at the time. But this gradually led to exponential growth in Hyderabad with the help of additional projects like international airport, pharma city, and Outer Ring Road. Similarly, plans were made to develop Amaravati where 139 projects were lined up. But the government has crippled all these projects, he alleged.

Mr. Naidu also said that the Centre has a responsibility to intervene and stop the YSRCP-led government from shifting the capital to protect the larger interests of the people. He pointed out that when the PPAs of solar companies were cancelled, the Union government had interfered as the power subject fell in the concurrent list. In respect to Amaravati also, similar MoUs were signed with farmers to take 33,000 acres. If they were made to suffer now, this would lead to a trust deficit and no farmer would come forward to give land to any future project in the entire country in the future, he said.