Notwithstanding the Sivaramakrishnan Committee’s caution and all-round demand from different sections to consider their cities as capital, the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, on Friday once again showed where his heart is --Vijayawada-Guntur stretch -- which he feels is the best bet for the capital of Andhra Pradesh.
In a chat with journalists from Hyderabad after his maiden Independence Day speech, Mr. Naidu brushed aside a suggestion that locating a capital in a backward area would ensure its development and said centrality, connectivity and social infrastructure were more important. “There should not be any doubt about Vijayawada. We should not locate a capital which does not have these basic features. We consciously developed Hyderabad and not Warangal and look at where Hyderabad is today.”
Availability of land was not an issue, he said, pointing to his strategy of going in for land pooling and making land owners part of the capital region development plan. “If we are clear in our vision of how the capital should be we can overcome all problems. If land is the only issue, there is lot of it near my Kuppam constituency which is also close to Tirupati. But I am not so selfish to promote taking that as the only criterion. People sitting in far-off places and far removed from ground realities are coming up with suggestions that are not practical,” he added.
He was equally firm that at least some of the directorates of various offices shift to Vijayawada but made it clear that he would stay put in Hyderabad as long as it remained joint capital and see that the Telugu Desam returns to power in Telangana in the next Assembly elections. “We will take the policy decisions here and the implementation will be there,” he said indicating that the main Secretariat with Principal Secretaries and Secretaries would remain in Hyderabad.
Specific plansHe said his choice of the capital does not mean that other cities would be ignored. He has specific plans for each one of them. “For instance, Oravakal, close to Kurnool and on the national highway has 35,000 acres of Government land where we plan to launch a manufacture hub”. Kurnool district as such was rich in limestone and has four reservoirs. Similarly each of the 13 districts has some advantage or the other which “we want to capitalise”. The State was rich in mineral wealth, had a rich pilgrim centre like Tirumala, a vast coast line, plenty of water and would soon become power-surplus.
To a question he said it was because of good relationship with the Centre that the ordinance was issued transferring seven mandals to be submerged under the Polavaram project after clearing it in the first Cabinet meeting.
He disagreed with the view that cancellation of Power Purchase Agreements with distribution companies has led to differences with the Telangana government and said it was matter of right of Andhra Pradesh. “At the same time I also said that once we generate surplus power, we will first share it with Telangana.”
