Bharatiya Janata Party State unit president Somu Veerraju has asserted that the capital of Andhra Pradesh will continue in Amaravati and there need not be a second thought about his party’s stand against the “three capitals”.
The capital will be built in Amaravati in the next five years at a cost of ₹5,000 crore, he stated, while observing that the Central government projects in the region did not stop in spite of the State’s “ill-conceived” move to shift the capital to Visakhapatnam. He vowed to fight on behalf of the farmers who parted with their lands under the pooling scheme.
Addressing farmers at Thullur in Guntur district, who are protesting against separate capitals proposed for Executive, Legislative and Judicial functions, on Monday, Mr. Veerraju demanded that the government give title deeds to farmers who gave 64,000 acres for the construction of Amaravati and develop another 9,000 acres in its possession.
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He pointed out that the BJP had its State party office in Vijayawada, seeking to buttress his argument that the capital would not be shifted out of the erstwhile VGTM region.
Also, he recalled that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had initially endorsed the idea of developing Amaravati as the capital and took a U-turn for reasons which he should explain.
Mr. Veerraju said those insisting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should intervene in the matter of capital shift, had to tell in which issue did Mr. Modi keep quiet.
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Bharatiya Kisan Sangh State president A. Rambabu, vice-president Chandrasekhar Reddy and others were present.