The foundation ceremony of Amaravati on October 22 is being billed as an extravaganza with the State removing all stops for making it a memorable event for every citizen despite its financial crunch.
Even as the State for the first time during the current fiscal had to resort to over draft facility to tide over its financial crunch on Thursday, the grand ceremony is expected to cost any where between Rs. 100 crore to Rs. 300 crore.
Besides sending out invitations to thousands of guests including Chief Ministers, Union Ministers and MPs, the State government wants every citizen to participate in the event and made it clear to the officials that there should be no dearth in the facilities to be provided to the VVIP guests as well as the general public.
While some are not taking kindly to the extravagant scale of preparations, there is a section which feels strongly that it should be a grand event for the people still smarting under the bifurcation blues, to take pride in the construction of their own capital.
It may take a decade or two for the new capital to take shape as a world class capital, envisioned by the State government. “We may or may not be around till then. At least we want to cherish the foundation laying ceremony,” a senior citizen said. It will be an emotionally binding event for people of State without their own capital and deserves to be celebrated, added a government employee.
Gallery on capital construction
Krishna District Collector Babu.A on Friday said that the State government is planning to set up a city gallery where stages of construction of State new capital would be displayed through various means of documentation. He also said that the efforts were on to welcome nearly 75,000 people from Krishna district for the ceremony of laying foundation for the capital on October 22.
