After facing almost 2 years of prolonged protest by farmers and Opposition, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh on Monday decided to repeal the Bills that has proposed 3 capital cities for the state. The government has confirmed that the state would now have only one capital – Amaravati.
The Jagan Reddy government on Monday decided to repeal the Bills that would allow Andhra Pradesh to have three capitals. @swastikadas95 shares details with @Arunima24 pic.twitter.com/PEJnThkaNu
— News18 (@CNNnews18) November 22, 2021
According to reports, the State Cabinet, which met in the Legislative Assembly in Vijayawada on Monday, has decided to revoke the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020, which was intended to have three capitals for the State.
Advocate General S Sriram informed the same to the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020 and AP Capital Region Development Authority Repeal Bills, 2020. Advocate Sriram said the chief minister would make a statement on this in the state Assembly.
Jagan Mohan Reddy’s ambitious tri-capital plan had proposed the executive capital in Visakhapatnam, legislative capital in Amaravati and judicial capital in Kurnool. Jagan Mohan Reddy had touted the inclusive growth of all three regions of the State as his govt’s rationale behind the decision.
This decision, from the very beginning, however, faced opposition from the Opposition parties and also the farmers from the Amaravati region who had given their lands for the proposed capital city during the Chandrababu Naidu govt rule.
A batch of petitions were filed by Amaravati region farmers and the daily hearing of the case is being held by the High Court presently.
At the beginning of the month, the Amaravati farmers had launched a 45-day maha padayatra ‘Nyayasthanam to Devasthanam’ (High Court to Temple) from Amaravati to Tirumala with a demand to have Amaravati as the sole capital of the State. Recently even Andhra lawyers staged a protest against moving the High Court from Amaravati to Kurnool.
In June 2020, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government enacted two separate laws. Firstly the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development (Repeal) Act, which was aimed at abolishing the authority created by the previous TDP government in 2015 to develop Amaravati as the state capital.
Secondly, the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act aimed at establishing three capitals for the state – executive capital at Visakhapatnam, judicial capital at Kurnool and legislative capital at Amaravati.
Protests erupt over Jagan Mohan Reddy’s tri-capital Bills
Soon after the then governor, Biswa Bhusan Harichandan had signed the two Bills, tens of thousands of farmers, who gave up over 34,000 acres of agricultural land to build the state capital in Amaravati, challenged the two controversial Bills in the High Court.
Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s predecessor Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party who had named Amaravati as the state capital after Hyderabad went to Telangana had also opposed Jagan Mohan Reddy’s tri-capital proposal.
Andhra Pradesh govt abolishes legislative council after it rejects the 3-capital bills
In January last year, the Andhra Pradesh government led by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had abolished the legislative council after the 3-capital bills were rejected by the upper house.
The TDP opposed the resolution. “The government has taken the decision only because the TDP had stalled the attempt to create three capitals and sent the decentralization of administration bills to the select committee,” TDP lawmaker Deepak Reddy said.
Following the prolonged protests against the proposal, CM Jagan had in the month of June met Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Explaining his government’s stand to have three capitals aimed at ensuring inclusive growth of all the three regions of the State, he urged the Centre to issue a re-notification for the location of the High Court in Kurnool.
However, despite the meeting, the Centre had not yet issued any notification for shifting the High Court to Kurnool and the President’s assent is still pending on Jagan’s three capitals law.
The BJP had also rejected the 3 capitals bills, asserting that it stands with the demand to build the state capital as proposed in Amravati. Protests by TDP, BJP and Janasena have been going on for over 3 years against the bill.
