AP May Have 3 Capitals To Ensure Decentralisation: YS Jagan

AMARAVATI: Strongly advocating for a decentralised development Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy hinted that the priorities of the State should be in tune with the aspirations of the people and the option of multiple capitals could be considered.

A Committee has been formed to decide on the capital area region which will submit its report in a couple of days and we have to discuss in the direction of developing all the regions and the concept of multiple capitals too could be considered.

‘We can think in terms of having three capitals one being the legislative capital and the other two being executive capital and a judicial capital. A reputed Consultancy firm will also give its report and a decision would be taken after discussing the details and logistics,’ he said.

Visakhapatnam which has infrastructure can be considered for being the Executive Capital without much investment, while the present Amaravati can be retained as the legislative capital and Kurnool can be considered as the Judiciary capital which will give a balanced development,’ he said.

Making a statement during the discussion on Amaravati capital city, he said the previous government had brought in a grand design of a capital city developing 53,000 acres with a cost of Rs 1.09 lakh crores and there were many irregularities which the House has discussed earlier.

But as and when I have that kind of amount of Rs 1.09 lakh crores, the priorities of our Government would be different as we think in terms of providing water to the arid Rayalaseema region. We need Rs 60,000 crores for that as there was no water in Rayalaseema region despite the heavy rains and floods. We need Rs 16,000 cores for taking Polavaram water to north Andhra and for drinking water grid we need Rs Rs 40,000 crores.

For the Nadu Nedu programme, we need Rs 29,000 cores for the schools and hospital put together and since our priorities are so different and aimed at welfare, we have to consider if spending Rs 1.09 lakh cores is necessary for the capital formation.

In this backdrop, we have to see if the option of having multiple capitals would better, he said.