The Cabinet meeting and the Assembly session being held on Monday to discuss decentralisation and abrogation of APCRDA Act set expectations soaring on the prospects of declaring Visakhapatnam as the Executive capital of Andhra Pradesh.
YSR Congress Party leaders, including Municipal Administration Minister Botcha Satyanarayana and Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao, have openly challenged those opposing Visakhapatnam as the Executive capital. They have claimed that the idea has been mooted to put an end to the backwardness of North Andhra region.
Prof. K.S. Chalam, who served as member of UPSC as well as NHRC, has told The Hindu that if Visakhapatnam was made the capital, it would compete with New York in 100 years going by its inherent strengths.
Mr. Chalam, who has done extensive research on backwardness in the region, has said they have strongly represented to the Sivaramakrishnan panel with documentary evidence on how North Andhra had been meted out a step-motherly treatment by the powers-that-be.
“No government investment has been made in Visakhapatnam since 1953 and the city has transformed into a growing metropolis due to establishment of Visakhapatnam Port in 1933, Scindia Steam Navigation (now Hindustan Shipyard Ltd) in 1941 and a host of PSUs subsequently.”
“It remained a Buddhist hub since 3rd century BC. It has a glorious history with several geographical advantages,” he has said batting strongly in favour of making Visakhapatnam the capital for administrative convenience.
‘Capital-ready infra’
For Prof. V. Balamohan Das, former Vice-Chancellor of Acharya Nagarjuna University, Visakhapatnam is best suited due to its ‘capital-ready’ infrastructure. “A Greenfield capital at Amaravati will involve a huge investment with very less funding from the Centre. If made Executive capital, Visakhapatnam will need minimal investment. Robust infrastructure, connectivity and cosmopolitan culture are its biggest plus points,” he has averred.
“We are advocating distributed development. The mammoth capital city of Amaravati as conceived by the previous government would have involved a lot of social and environmental costs. We stated this at the time of the release of the Sivaramakrishnan report in 2014 and we reiterate now,” Human Rights Forum AP coordination committee member V.S Krishna has said.
Harbor International School CEO Raghu Raj Yerra says as an entrepreneur in the field of education, he is very elated that Visakhapatnam is being considered as an Executive capital. “It’s long overdue goodwill gesture to the City of Destiny.”
