AP govt moves Supreme Court, challenges High Court order on 3 capitals

Amaravati: Six months after the Andhra Pradesh High Court declared Amaravati as the only capital of the state, the state government filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court on Saturday. Challenging the High Court judgment, the AP government requested an immediate stay.

It may be recalled that Chief Minister Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy, during the Assembly sessions, talked about developing Visakhapatnam as the executive capital with just 10% of the estimated cost of developing basic infrastructure in Amaravati. Later, minister for industries, skill development, and Information Technology G. Amarnath hinted that the three capital Bills will be tabled in the Assembly soon.

Earlier, the High Court said that the Assembly has no right to decide on the passing of Bills on the capital issue. In March, the High Court said the state government should follow the CRDA Act and ordered it to develop Amaravati as the capital. A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra in its final verdict on a batch of petitions filed challenging the acts on decentralization and repeal of AP CRDA said the state legislature had no competence to make any legislation on the state's capital and directed the state government not to shift any office from the present capital city Amaravati.

The proposed formation of three capitals by the state government was also challenged by the farmers of Amaravati. According to the farmers, the government had entered into agreements with them for offering 34,000 acres of land under the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS), promising to develop a new capital. However, the Chief Minister decided to make three capitals in Amaravati, Visakhapatnam, and Kurnool for the development of all parts of the state. It was proposed to have the Executive capital in Visakhapatnam, the Judicial capital in Kurnool, and the Legislative capital in Amaravati.

Farmers furious

Amaravati farmers reacted to the government filing a petition in the Supreme Court with anger. It should be noted that the farmers are on the sixth day of the Maha Pada Yatra. According to the farmers, the government is committing fraud by delaying the work for six months. The government is also insulting the High Court and the advocates, they said and added that even during the Assembly session, they discussed the three capital Bill even after the court order was under process. The farmers said they would file a special petition against the fake promises made by the government on the development of the new capital.