As protests by Amaravati farmers intensified over the proposal for three capitals for Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday said that the rationale behind every decision is the welfare of all. He said that the government takes decisions for the good of all sections of people and all regions of the state. Jagan, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, was speaking at Eluru in West Godavari district after launch of Arogyasri, a healthcare scheme.
“From village to state administration, all are equal. Fruits of development and governance should reach all sections of people. We will correct the wrong decisions made in the past,” he said. Jagan said he would use his position of the chief minister to make sure that people live in harmony and fruits of development reach all. His remarks came amid continuing protests by farmers in Amaravati over the three capital proposal. Farmers, who gave 33,000 acres of land for development of Amaravati as the state capital in 2015, are demanding that the capital be retained in Amaravati. Jagan has mooted the idea of developing Visakhapatnam as administrative capital and Kurnool as judicial capital. According to this proposal, only Assembly and Raj Bhavan will function in Amaravati.
Experts committee constituted by the state government has also made the same recommendation for decentralised development. The government earlier this week set up a 16-member high-power committee to analyse the report of experts” panel and take a final decision. The farmers, who have been protesting for more than two weeks, say that shifting Secretariat and Chief Minister”s office to Visakhapatnam and High Court to Kurnool will spell doom for them. Amaravati was the brainchild of Jagan”s predecessor N. Chandrababu Naidu, who had plans to build it as a world-class city.
YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), which came to power in May last year, alleged that the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government resorted to insider trading and that it wanted to develop capital at Amaravati to benefit people of Kamma community, from which Naidu comes. The TDP chief, however, has rubbished the allegations.
