Vijayawada: The farmers from 29 villages of Andhra Pradesh capital region have taken a pledge to intensify their agitation in support of continuing Amaravati as the only capital.
Demanding one State-one capital norm, at a huge meeting held to mark completion of one year of agitation, they said they would change their strategy to step up their protests.
The farmers who surrendered their lands for building the capital in 2014 during Telugu Desam Government, feel that the land value will crash if the YSR Congress Party Government led by Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was allowed to implement three-capital plan.
The farmers from 29 villages of Andhra Pradesh capital region have taken a pledge to take an aggressive stand in support of continuing Amaravati as the only capital.
On December 17, 2019, Reddy made a sensational statement in the Assembly that he wanted to develop Amaravati as legislative capital, Visakhapatnam as executive capital and Kurnool as judicial capital.
The ruling party blames Telugu Desam of indulging in inside trading and choosing Amaravati, located on the bank of Krishna River between Vijayawada and Guntur notwithstanding exorbitant construction cost.
The government while accusing Naidu and his party of favouring capital construction deals with an ulterior motive, said three capitals which were mooted on the lines of three capitals of South Africa, will ensure centralized development.
As a prelude to three capital announcement, YSRCP Government terminated partnership agreement with Singaporean consortium for development of Capital City Start-up Area Project.
Naidu, who had promised to create a futuristic capital, had inked multi-layered pact with the consortium in 2017 to develop the project in an area of 6.84 sq. km (1691 acres) with 58% equity for the consortium and 42% to government.
For Amaravati capital, the foundation stone of which was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Telugu Desam Government had acquired 33,000 acres under Land Pooling Scheme. Under the scheme, developed area of 1,000 square yards was promised for every acre given for the capital development.
Amaravati Parirakshana Samiti Joint Action Committee is spearheading the stir to press for retaining Amaravati as sole capital.
Farmers’ Joint Action Committee convener Puvvada Sudhakar said it was wrong to spread the message that the agitation is only by people belonging to a powerful land-owning community. He said most of land-losers were from backward and scheduled caste communities.
The mammoth meeting organised by the JAC at Uddandarayunipalem, where stone was laid for the new capital, was boycotted by Communist Party of India (Marxist), as Bharatiya Janata Party, attended the programme.
Mr. Naidu in his address blamed Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy and his coterie for trying to shift capital to industrial hub of Visakhapatnam to promote realty business after buying lands in the area.
Now the probe ordered into, what YSRCP terms Amaravati land scam and formation of three capitals have turned subjudice. Farmers and other outfits have approached courts to stop implementing the decisions.