Amaravati farmers' march to Srikakulam today

Visakhapatnam: The battle for continuation of Amaravati as the single capital by aggrieved farmers of Mangalagiri, Thullur, Tadepalli, Mandapam, Undavalli and other areas in Vijayawada-Guntur region backed by the entire Opposition is set to take a new twist with the Amaravati Parirakshana Samiti (APS) making elaborate arrangements to launch a 900 km long 60 day maha padayatra from Venkatapuram to Arasavilli in Srikakulam district on Monday.

After the Andhra Pradesh High Court set aside the rejection of permission by Director General of Police K V Rajendranath Reddy due to apprehensions over 'breach of peace and harmony,' the organisers along with aadhar card copies submitted a list of 600 participants, in what the APS termed as Maha Padayatra 2.0. This yatra also marks the completion of 1,000 days of protest against the decision of the State government for capital trifurcation.

The latest yatra is a follow-up to the 'Nyayasthanam to devasthanam' padayatra from the AP High Court at Amaravati to Tirupati, the abode of Lord Venkteswara, which was flagged off at Thullur in November, 2021. At that time also permission for a public meeting to mark the culmination of the padayatra was secured by knocking at the doors of the judiciary.

In response to a petition filed by APS secretary G Tirupati Rao, the High Court directed the police to allow the padayatra by restricting the number of participants to 600 after receipt of details regarding route map.

The padayatra to the famous Suryanarayana Swamy temple of North Andhra will culminate into a public meeting. The meeting is expected to be attended by the representatives of all the Opposition parties. Interestingly, BJP also took out a padayatra recently in all the 29 affected villages of the capital region and extended its support for continuing Amaravati as the sole capital of Andhra Pradesh.

Reiterating the government's stand on trifurcation of capital with legislative capital at Amaravati, executive capital at Visakhapatnam and judicial capital at Kurnool, several ministers came down heavily on TDP for instigating farmers to provoke the people of North Andhra by hurting their sentiments by opposing the proposal to develop Visakhapatnam as the executive capital.

Ministers Mutyala Raju, Rajanna Dora, Botcha Satyanarayana, Gudivada Amarnath, Keediri Appala Raju and Dharmana Prasada Rao said the padayatra is being taken out to Srikakulam with an intention to create law and order problem. "How will the people of peace-loving North Andhra sit quietly when there is opposition to shatter their dreams for overall development by making Visakhapatnam the executive capital," Amarnath, who holds the portfolios of Industries, Commerce and IT, asked. He contended that the government is committed to continue Amaravati as the legislative capital and an education hub.

APS convener A Siva Reddy said people without any political affiliations are behind the Amaravati agitation and claimed that the police following directions from the corridors of power had foisted cases against them during Amaravati to Tirupati padayatra to defame them.

During TDP rule, 35,000 acres of fertile land was acquired under Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) to develop the capital with the promise of providing 1,000 sq yards of developed plot at the place of their choice per acre of surrendered land.