Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy has proposed to make three capitals (Visakhapatnam, Amravathi and Kurnool) for the state. The ‘contentious’ Bills have now been sent to Governor B. Harichandan for his consent after they were rejected by the Legislative Council which is dominated currently by the Telugu Desam Party.
The two proposed bills (AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill 2020 and the AP Capital Region Development Authority [Repeal] Bill 2020) for the trifurcation of state’s capital have attracted strong criticism from Opposition parties. Parties including the TDP and the BJP have written letters to the Governor not to accept them and also advised him to seek the opinion of the Attorney General on them as there are pending cases in the court regarding them.
Former CM and TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu has urged the Governor in his six-page letter to consider the interests and future aspirations of all sections of Andhra Pradesh before taking a final decision on bills. He reminded him that the Bills were referred to the Select Committee and their approval at this juncture would amount to contempt of the state High Court which is in the process of hearing petitions on them.
“The two bills violated the Sec 6 of AP Reorganisation Act 2014. Bifurcation act passed by the Parliament suggested only one capital for Andhra Pradesh. Three capitals are a violation of the country’s established parliamentary practices and traditions. The central government has already provided Rs. 2,500 crores for developing the Secretariat, Assembly, Council, High Court and other basic facilities in Amaravathi,” said Naidu.
In the meantime, BJP state unit president Kanna Lakshminarayana also urged the Governor not to give assent to decentralisation, CRDA repeal bills. In a letter He mentioned that the proposed decentralisation of capital was not acceptable to all the stakeholders. He termed the bills as unconstitutional and sub-judice. Ruling YSR Congress Party is confident that the bills will be accepted by the Governor. However, the Governor may not take a decision in a hurried manner due to some legal issues.