Hyderabad: Taking a swipe at the judiciary, Andhra Pradesh chief minister and YSR Congress supremo Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday said that courts cannot preempt or direct not to make a policy with presumptions and lay down impossible conditions setting timelines which cannot be met.
His statement in light of the AP high court’s recent judgement directed the ruling YSRCP government to develop Amaravati as the capital, as proposed under the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) Act that was brought by previous chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu when the Telugu Desam Party’s was in power.
The high court’s judgement was made after a bunch of petitions were filed by farmers who had given up their land for development of the capital city. The court asked the state government to develop the plots and give them back in the next three months. The Jagan Mohan Reddy government decided to have three capitals at Amaravati, Kurnool and Visakhapatnam instead.
The court’s decision has left the AP government in a quandary, and Thursday’s statement in the assembly by AP chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy perhaps indicates that the YSRCP won’t let go of its idea easily.
In statement from his office, Jagan Mohan Reddy reaffirmed that the AP government is committed to having a ”decentralized development”, and “resolutely” said that decision on capitals is their right and responsibility.
Rounding-off the discussion on legislative competence, the AP chief minister said that courts “cannot preempt or direct not to make a policy with presumptions and lay down impossible conditions setting timelines which cannot be met”.
“The laws we are making stand for public scrutiny every five years, which is the very reason why the previous dispensation was rejected and people gave us a thumping mandate with 151 of the 175 seats in the house. Courts should not be getting into our domain of making laws and this I am saying with utmost respect towards judiciary and to set the record straight for future generations to come,” Jagan Mohan Reddy added.
The AP chief minister even went as far as to say that AP high court’s orders to set up basic amenities within one month and other infrastructure in the region within six months is “impossible”. “The 29 villages form a minor fraction of the total State. We are exploring legal options on the issue,” he said.
Calling the AP judiciary’s judgement a ”trespass into the legislative terrain”, Jagan staed that his government has felt that “limits were crossed” and hence a discussion on the issue had been taken up the discussion in the Assembly.
“The Court has also said that state has no right on decentralization of development and capital city, bifurcation of trifurcation, but is in the purview of the Centre. The Centre on the contrary has given an affidavit that capital is a State subject and has also given a reply to a question asked by TDP member in the Parliament quoting Article 3,” said the AP chief minister, according to a release from his office.
He added that despite the court’s order, his government will go forward with its “decentralized development agenda and will not go back (on it). “We have no option but to go ahead as decentralization is our policy and decision on capitals in our right and responsibility,” Jagan added.
