Jagan govt to withdraw old 3 capital Bills; to introduce new comprehensive Bill soon

At an emergency meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, the Andhra Pradesh government decided to withdraw the legislation for creating three capitals in the state in place of the existing Amaravati. The Cabinet decided to repeal the two laws passed in June 2020 - the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act 2020 and the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development (Repeal) Act 2020.

These Acts propose the formation of three capitals in the state. The Acts intend to develop Amaravati, Visakhapatnam, and Kurnool as the legislative, executive, and judicial capitals, respectively.

"Concentration trends in the past and how much people opposed them were evident by the verdict given in the 2019 general election. Once again, the people's verdict made it clear that a super capital model like Hyderabad should not exist and that the government should not commit such a historic mistake. So we took steps to firmly believe that decentralization was the right approach," said Jagan on Monday.

He added that there are many myths, suspicions, court cases, legal disputes, and misrepresentations related to decentralization. "We have seen with our own eyes that some have even put forward the argument that injustice is being done to some, setting aside the good intention of the government to do justice to all. In this context, to elaborate the good intentions of the government about the three capitals, to incorporate all the answers, both legal and non-legal, into the Bill itself, to further improve the Bill, to explain it broadly to all regions, and to incorporate them if any changes are necessary, the government withdraws all previously mentioned items. With that in mind, the government will again come forward with a complete, comprehensive, and improved bill. We are taking this decision to safeguard the wider public interest," he said.

Earlier in the day, the Andhra Pradesh government through its advocate general Subrahmanyam Sriram had submitted in the High Court that the state Cabinet has decided to withdraw the three capital Bill.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on 15 November started hearing writ petitions filed before it challenging the two Bills. Farmers who gave up over 34,000 acres of their fertile lands to set up the capital in Amaravati had challenged the two laws in the court. Over 100 petitions were filed.

Earlier, in August 2021, the High Court had adjourned the hearing on these pleas to 15 November due to the threat of a third wave of COVID-19.