Form special panel for 3 capitals: Botsa Satyanarayana to elected representatives

Visakhapatnam: Minister for education Botsa Satyanarayana said he could stop the padayatra in five minutes, but would not do so. "We are soft and compliant with the law," the minister said while speaking at the "round table in support of decentralization'.

Several MLAs, MPs, and people from different walks of life participated in the round table.

The minister suggested local elected representatives form a committee for three capitals and launch a campaign.

He said the chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who conceived the idea of three capitals and the decentralization, was not against 29 villages. He said Jagan wants all-around development of all 26 districts.

Soon after coming to power, Jagan Mohan Reddy visited Amaravati. He said Jagan was told that a full-fledged green field capital would cost over Rs 1 lakh crore, which was 300 times more than Visakhapatnam.

"If we spent Rs 10,000 crore, Vizag will become a better city than Mumbai," Botsa said.

He said it was true Amaravati farmers gave their land for the capital but Chandrababu Naidu never gave them in writing that it would be the future capital of the State.

Blaming Chandrababu Naidu, Botsa warned that people would not keep quiet if some vested interests tried to exploit the wealth of the State.

``We have lost a lot and we are not ready to lose more. It is time people of north Andhra raised their voice and demanded their due,'' the minister told the gathering.

Minister for Industries Gudivada Amarnath said the padayatra with a political agenda does not augur well for the people. He said the local people have been watching the developments and understood that Chandrababu was planning to destroy the peace in north coastal Andhra by organizing this padayatra.

Historian and former Andhra University professor Prof K Suryanarayana said Visakhapatnam has a 1,000-year-old history. It dates back to the era when traders from Sri Lanka and Indonesia visited and traded with the local merchants. He quoted several examples of how green field capitals never succeeded.