Expert committee to tour entire State soon

Govt. will go by its view on the Capital issue, says Botcha

Municipal Administration Minister Botcha Satyanarayana said the expert committee, which was constituted to suggest a comprehensive strategy for all-round development, including the construction of Capital city Amaravati, would undertake a tour of the entire State soon to get feedback.

It would then make a recommendation on the location of the Capital city and what shape it should take, paving the way for the government to take an appropriate decision.

Addressing media persons at the Secretariat on Thursday, Mr. Satyanarayana said the government had taken a critical view of the conditions prevailing in Amaravati and resolved to get the project reviewed by the expert committee as the temporary buildings there were constructed at exorbitant cost and some of them were prone to flooding.

The committee would start visiting the State in about four days and then revert with what needs to be done while the government honours its commitments to farmers as per agreements reached by the previous dispensation.

The government would then chart its course of action and pay due attention to the development of different regions.

‘Public interest at heart’

The Minister observed that the government would take the Capital project forward to the extent required and recalled that the TDP government had brushed aside the recommendations of the Sivaramakrishnan Committee and instead relied on the opinion of a panel that was headed by former Minister P. Narayana, the consequences of which were well known.

The present government was proceeding carefully to protect the public interest, he asserted.

Mr. Satyanarayana said unobjectionable houses built on less than two cents of land would be regularised soon free of cost and those built on larger plots at nominal rates to be fixed. For those living on river and canal banks, alternative sites would be allotted by the government, for which guidelines were being evolved, he added.