Why Andhra Pradesh wants 3 capitals, understand the whole controversy
Under the new bill, Amaravati will be the legislative capital of the state while Visakhapatnam will be the executive capital and Kurnool will be the judicial capital. As soon as the bill is passed in the Legislative Assembly, widespread protest has started against the state government.
Amravati
The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly late Monday approved a bill shaping the three Rajdhani plans. Under the new bill, Amravati will be the legislative capital of the state, while Visakhapatnam will be the executive capital and Kurnool the judicial capital. As soon as the bill is passed in the Legislative Assembly, widespread protest has started against the state government. 17 TDP MLAs have been suspended. At the same time there was a clash between the police and the protesters in which many were also injured. After all, why the Andhra Pradesh government wants three capitals and what is the real root cause of the dispute behind it? Let’s know-
What is the whole matter?
The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government on Monday tabled a three-capital resolution in the assembly, which was approved. Under this proposal, the three capital cities for Andhra Pradesh will be the working capital Visakhapatnam, the legislative capital Amravati and the judicial capital Kurnool. Explain that Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are also two capital cities.
According to the new proposal, many government offices including the Chief Minister’s Office, Raj Bhavan and Secretariat will now be shifted to Visakhapatnam. The High Court will be shifted to Kurnool. The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly will remain in Amravati. The Andhra Pradesh government’s reasoning behind the concept of a three-capital is that it wants equal development of the three regions of the state – North Coast, South Coast and Rayalaseema.
Why is there protest?
The TDP, the main opposition party in the state, is opposing the government’s new proposal. Both the parties are accusing each other of electing the capital keeping in mind the community (caste). The Naidu community in Amravati has a large population, while the Vijayawada-Guntur region has a majority of the Reddy community. It was almost certain that Amravati was made the new capital of the state by the previous government of Chandrababu Naidu, for which a cost of Rs 33 thousand crores was also approved.
17 TDP MLAs suspended
The new government bill will be introduced in the Legislative Council after it is passed by the Legislative Assembly. However the ruling YSR does not have a majority here. It has only 9 members in the Upper House. On Monday, 17 Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLAs were suspended for a day for creating a ruckus while passing the resolution in the assembly on Monday. At the same time, TDP MP Jaidev Galla has been sent to police remand till 31 January.
Skirmish between police protesters
Farmers and the Amaravati Shielding Joint Action Committee (JAC) on Monday started climbing around the assembly, despite the police stopping. Police lathi-charged the protesters and took them into custody. Many protesters were injured during the lathicharge and a clash with the police led to a stampede-like situation there. Some policemen were also injured by stone pelting by the protesters.
Police had detained representatives of all opposition parties but Galla Jayadev, an MP from Guntur, somehow came out and reached the assembly with the farmers.
Each time Andhra compromises with the capital
Each time Andhra Pradesh has to compromise the capital with changing borders. In 1953, when Andhra separated, Madras moved to Tamil Nadu. With the formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956, Kurnool was merged with Hyderabad, again losing the state as the capital. Similarly, when Telangana became a separate state in 2014, Hyderabad came under the jurisdiction of Telangana. Work was to be done towards making Amravati the state capital for which a budget of Rs 33 thousand crore was fixed.
Farmers are also angry with the new government proposal
Not only the opposition but also the farmers are opposing the new proposal of the government. The farmers who had given 33 thousand acres of land to make Amravati a dream capital are very angry with the government’s three-capital concept. The government has already spent Rs 5500 crore on Amravati but most of the external funding has been withdrawn from the mega project after the controversy.
