Amaravati, Mar 28 (PTI) The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Saturday unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Centre to accord legal sanctity and legitimacy to the greenfield city of Amaravati as the capital of the state.
It requested the central government to amend Section 5 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act – 2014 (that deals with the common capital for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana).
As soon as the House began, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu moved the resolution requesting the House to debate and pass it.
“Hereby, resolved to request the Government of India to amend Section 5 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014 as under: (A) to include the word ‘at Amaravati’ in sub-section 2 of Section 5 (B) to add the words and Amaravati includes the capital city areas notified under Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority 2014 to the explanation to Section 5,” Naidu said.
Section 5 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014 had designated Hyderabad as the common capital for both the bifurcated Telugu states for 10 years and called for a new capital for the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh post that period, without specifying a particular location.
Hence, the Assembly resolved today to request the Centre to identify Amaravati as the capital.
“I am saying only one thing. There is only one capital for AP (Andhra Pradesh). That is Amaravati. This is the permanent capital. No one can touch this. Can’t even move an inch,” Naidu said in his reply after the debate.
With the Assembly resolution passed, he said the greenfield capital city will be fortified legislatively and constitutionally.
According to the CM, imparting legislative status to Amaravati will ensure that it does not face any problem. He said the Centre has also asked for an Assembly resolution to this effect.
Calling Amaravati a “self-sustaining” project, Naidu said farmers came forward to pool their farmland, offering 34,400 acres within 58 days with “zero disputes”.
Currently, the government has a land bank of 54,000 acres in Amaravati and has already initiated the process for second phase of Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) for another 40,000 acres, beginning with 16,666 acres from seven villages.
Naidu said the government will go for land monetisation in Amaravati, develop and return some land to the farmers and sell some reserve land in the greenfield capital city.
According to the CM, 91 works worth Rs 56,000 crore are currently underway in Amaravati, where 30,000 people are working day and night.
Assuring that the capital construction will be completed by August 2028, he promised a timeline of finishing building trunk roads by May 2027, layouts and Assembly (May 2028), High Court (June 2028) and the five iconic towers (August 4, 2028).
After accomplishing all these milestones, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will come and inaugurate them in over two years in August 2028.
Naidu said he thought that the opposition YSRCP MLAs would turn up today and cooperate or witness the permanent capital resolution, but could not understand why they failed to show up.
“No change in their (YSRCP) character. Same conspiracies and plots,” he said, claiming that the opposition party “will eternally remain as the traitor of Amaravati”.
The greenfield capital city suffered uncertainty for five years between 2019 and 2024 during the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led previous YSRCP government.
Reddy had propounded the trifurcation of the capital city to retain Amaravati as the legislative capital and make Kurnool as the judicial capital and the port city of Vizag as the executive capital.
Consequently, the projects initiated by the TDP supremo for his “dream project” between 2014 and 2019 had stalled abruptly after Reddy came to power, triggering hundreds of farmers who pooled their land for Amaravati to launch a years-long agitation in different forms.
However, Reddy’s capital trifurcation plans went awry with the YSRCP suffering a defeat in the 2024 polls while the TDP-led NDA storming to power, injecting new life into Amaravati for its revival.
Noting that four alleged fire accidents had occurred in Amaravati, Naidu issued a stern warning to those “interfering and sabotaging” the greenfield capital city. He also said it would be their “last day”.
Calling Amaravati as the future city, he promised to develop it in such a way that the country will feel proud of.
Later, the House dispatched the resolution to the Centre, requesting the Rajya Sabha Chairman and Lok Sabha Speaker to accord legal sanctity and legitimacy to Amaravati.
Andhra Pradesh Speaker C Ayyannapatrudu has also dispatched a copy of the resolution to the Union Home Minister and others. PTI STH KH
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.