YSRCP, Oppn trade charges over finances, Amaravati

Visakhapatnam/Vijayawada: The ruling YSR Congress Party and the Opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh are engaged in a war of words over the developments over capital at Amaravati and the recent report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on State finances.

The AP High Court order to develop capital works at Amaravati within six months rejecting the proposal for trifurcation took a new twist with the Legislative Assembly taking up a short discussion on legislative competence and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, declaring that the State Government had the discretion to take decisions on administrative issues after getting a decisive mandate to govern for five years in the 2019 Assembly elections.

The Opposition, mainly the Telugu Desam Party as well as the BJP strongly criticised the government for questioning the court's powers from delivering judgement on the controversial decision to develop executive capital at Visakhapatnam, judicial at Kurnool and legislative at Amaravati. The ruling party also claimed that developing Amaravati as a single capital will entail a burden of over Rs1 lakh crore requiring a lot of time for completion of required infrastructure.

The HC passed the judgement in response to a batch of petitions filed by farmers' JAC of Amaravati. Nearly 35,000 acres of fertile land was acquired during the TDP regime under Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) with the promise to provide 1,000 square yards of developed plot of their choice per acre of surrendered land. In its report for the financial year 2020-21, CAG found that an amount totalling Rs1.10 crore was spent bypassing the Legislature tantamounting to commitment of gross financial impropriety.

Spending the amount bypassing the Legislature is an unpardonable financial irregularity and constitutional impropriety warranting declaration of financial emergency, former Finance Minister and TDP leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said.