Move for Amaravati Corporation triggers protests

Visakhapatnam: The announcement by the State Government to form Amaravati Capital City Municipal Corporation (ACCMC) by including 16 villages from core capital area and three from neighbouring blocks has drawn brickbats from the Opposition and agitating farmers.

Several people protested at Neerukonda and other villages of Mangalagiri tehsil when grama sabhas were conducted as per the draft notification issued by the government. However, Mangalagiri MPDO Kota Ramprasanna tried to allay fears among the villagers at a recent grama sabha saying that the move is aimed at comprehensive development of the region.

The notification comes after the AP High Court was informed that the government will come up with new legislation by repealing the three capital proposals. The three-capital legislation was withdrawn after the petitions filed by Amaravati Parirakshana Samiti, which formed a JAC to spearhead one-capital demand and others in the High Court came up for hearing.

As per the draft notification issued last month, the government proposes to form ACCMC comprising 16 villages from the core capital region out of total 29 villages and three villages from neighboring tehsils. "There seems to be a conspiracy behind the move to divide unity among 29 villages so as to weaken the anti-trifurcation capital movement," said Amaravati JAC leader A Shiva Reddy. After the YSRCP formed the government, the decision by the erstwhile TDP Government to develop Amaravati as the capital was scrapped by envisaging it as the legislative capital, Visakhapatnam as the executive capital and Kurnool as the judicial capital. The government also replaced Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) with Amaravati Metropolitan Region Development Authority (AMRDA).

Scoffing at speculation on retaining Amaravati as the single capital due to court cases, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister Botcha Satyanarayana recently clarified that they will come out with a new bill on forming three capitals after consulting the stakeholders soon.

During the TDP regime, then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu acquired 33,000 acres from 29 villages under Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) to form the capital at Amaravati with the promise to make it a 'people's capital' and a 'futuristic city.' Describing it as a hoax and opposing centralised development going by Hyderabad model, YSRCP subsequently announced its intention to form three capitals to ensure balanced development in all the regions.

Merging 16 villages from the core capital region with three villages from Mangalagiri tehsil is part of a deep-rooted conspiracy to mislead and divide the people fighting for retaining Amaravati as the only capital, TDP leader Somireddy Chandrasekhar Reddy alleged. However, YSRCP leaders dismissed the criticism as 'politically-motivated' campaign and said the government is committed to ensure comprehensive development of the Amaravati region.