Former Union Minister Chinta Mohan on Monday said that the YSR Congress Party government was trying to hoodwink the public by mooting ‘three capitals’, and divert attention from the issue of the party supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA on the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB).
The three capital concept would only lead to confusion in administration and a plethora of problems to the public, he said.
Addressing a press conference at Tirupati, he said that Tirupati was strongly proposed as the State capital in 1953, and this would again become a strong and genuine demand of the public. “Former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu played a vile role in not making Tirupati as the capital, but had brought in the Amaravati project to serve the vested interests of his party men,” he alleged.
Mr. Mohan said that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy should shed his dictatorial attitude and work for the aspirations of the public. “Now, all the Ministers and senior officials are afraid of giving him any concrete suggestion, but were flattering him to satisfy his ego, which in turn would adversely impact the political, social and economical interests of the State. “All the YSRCP and TDP MPs are trying to be in the good books of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and are thereby mortgaging the self-respect of the Telugus in New Delhi,” Mr. Mohan said.
HC location
The selection of a location for the High Court was not the prerogative of the State legislature, but it required the consent of the Chief Justice of India and the judges of the Supreme Court and High Court, he said.
Referring to the protests by the farmers of the Amaravati region, who had given their lands for the capital city project, he said that the Congress party would always stand by the farmers in distress.
Mr. Chinta Mohan criticised the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), saying that the temple administration had turned into a corporate entity, utterly ignoring the concerns of devotees by commercialising the sale of darshan tickets and prasadams. He alleged that the TTD was only serving the interests of the ruling party and hurting the sentiments of devotees and also working against the service motive of the reputed religious organisation.