Differences cropped up among Ministers in the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet over the choice of Vijayawada as the new capital of the State.
Deputy Chief Minister K.E. Krishnamurthy on Tuesday maintained that Vijayawada would be only a temporary capital and not a permanent one and said that what his Cabinet colleague P. Narayana had stated in this regard was neither authentic nor official.
Talking to reporters in the Assembly, he said mega cities and smart cities would be developed before deciding on the location of the capital. However, the capital city should be centrally located and that did not mean it should be Vijayawada. While making it clear that he was not against Vijayawada, he said the city was being chosen as a temporary capital because buildings were available there.
Congested cityHe said Vijayawada was a congested city and wondered why Mr. Narayana was repeatedly mentioning it leading to increase in land prices there. It would be difficult to build all the needed buildings there due to paucity of land, he said. Mr. Krishnamurthy, who hails from Kurnool district, said there was no demand from Rayalaseema to locate the capital in that region.
The Deputy Chief Minister said the survey on availability of government lands within a radius of 10 km from each district headquarters town across the 13 districts was completed. He said the survey revealed that that 32,872 acres of government land was available across 13 districts. Huge chunks of about 5,000 acres and 5,823.80 acres were available in Kurnool and Nellore districts respectively.
He said in case of acquisition of government lands for capital city, the government would pay only the prevailing official rate. The government was also contemplating to incorporate urgency clause once the new land acquisition act was finalised.
