Speaking in different voices on Capital Amaravati, or its shifting is causing a great deal of confusion among the people of the State, former Minister and TDP MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao has said, and urged Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to break his silence on the issue.
“So far, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy has never given any indication on shifting the Capital, and hopefully he will not opt for it,” Mr. Srinivasa Rao said while addressing the media at the party office here on Thursday.
Quoting Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the TDP leader said that as Leader of the Opposition, he had stated in the Assembly on September 4, 2014, that his party welcomed the setting up of the Capital in Vijayawada as it did not want people of one region to be pitted against another, and that wherever the Capital was set up it needed 30,000 acres.
‘Majority opinion’
A decision on the Capital had been taken going by the majority opinion expressed before the Sivaramakrishnan Committee. About ₹9,000 crore had been spent on it after farmers parted with 33,000 acres of land, he said.
Blaming Minister Botcha Satyanarayana for raking up a controversy, he said BJP Rajya Sabha member T.G. Venkatesh’s remarks that there would be four Capitals only confounded the confusion.
On the idea of decentralisation, Mr. Srinivasa Rao said he did not want to add to the confusion. He, however, favoured development of Visakhapatnam as the financial capital of the State in view of the conducive conditions.
The TDP leader also refused to speak about the controversy surrounding the house of his daughter at Bheemunipatnam stating that the matter was sub judice.
MLC D. Rama Rao, TDP (Urban) president S.A. Rahaman and former MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao were among those present.
Published - August 29, 2019 11:15 pm IST
