Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP to seek Centre’s help on Amaravati, spotlights investor worries

17/11/2019

New Delhi, NOV 16: Amid uncertainty over the fate of Amaravati, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party is planning to take up the issue at the national level and raise it in Parliament during the winter session.
The issue came up for discussion at the TDP parliamentary party meeting held at the residence of party president N Chandrababu Naidu at Vundavalli on Friday.
“We shall make use of every forum to raise the issue of Amaravati being dumped as the capital of Andhra. We shall raise the issue in Parliament during the Zero Hour or issue a notice for a discussion in Parliament, so that the entire country should know what is happening to the dream capital of Amaravati at the ground level,” TDP’s parliamentary party leader Galla Jayadev told Hindustan Times on Saturday.He said the party would also present the ground reports to all the departments concerned at the Centre and the people who matter with regard to what has happened to Amaravati after the YSR Congress party came to power in the state. “We shall seek the intervention of the Centre in this regard,” Jayadev said.The TDP leader said the withdrawal of Singapore consortium from Amaravati project did not augur well for the state. “It is not the question of just one project being called off. It is the question of credibility of the state and lack of investment climate in the state.
It will send wrong signals to the potential investors who will think twice before putting their money in Andhra Pradesh not just in capital but in any other project,” he said.Jayadev said the farmers who had given away their lands for the construction of Amaravati were now crest-fallen as the work on project came to a halt. “They have moved the high court expressing concern over their fate in case the capital city is relocated,” he said.
On Thursday, the state high court admitted a petition filed by a group of farmers from Amaravati who challenged the state government’s decision to constitute an ‘expert committee’ and decide the fate of the upcoming capital.
They argued that the committee was constituted in violation of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) Act, 2014.
They said they had given away their land to the government under land pooling system for the capital, hoping to get high returns.
Now, their fate had become uncertain due to the talk of change of location of capital city.Justice U Durga Prasada Rao, who admitted the petition, issued notices to the Centre and the YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh and posted the case for November 28
A five-member committee comprising urban planning experts, headed by retired IAS officer G Nageswara Rao completed its task of receiving suggestions from the people on the capital city location on November 12. It is expected to submit its report by month-end.
There are speculations that the capital would be relocated to the area between Mangalagiri and Guntur on National Highway No. 16.A day after the withdrawal of Singapore consortium from the Amaravati start-up area city project on November 12, finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy made it clear that the government cannot afford to develop the capital city at Amaravati as per the plan envisaged during the TDP regime.
He said it would take several decades to complete the project and the state government had neither time nor resources to take up the project in view of its own priorities of welfare and developmental programmes to be implemented in the entire state.

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