When thousands of farmers from the Capital Region are agitating seeking withdrawal of the government’s plans for relocating the State capital, ruling YSRCP MLA and former minister Dharmana Prasada Rao, in a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind sought declaring Amaravati as ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘illegal’. He also wanted the Centre to make necessary changes to the political map of India and publish a new version.
In the letter dated January 6, Mr. Prasada Rao said the TDP government declared Amaravati as the new capital without considering the recommendations of the Sivaramakrishnan Committee which was appointed by the Central government post bifurcation in 2014.
Violated the Constitutional principle
“The Sivaramakrishnan Committee report was neither discussed in the Cabinet meeting nor in the Legislative Assembly and Council. This action of declaring ‘Amaravati’ as capital is unconstitutional as it violated the fundamental constitutional principle of ‘Justice’ and ‘Equality of Opportunity’ enshrined in our Constitution. It is also illegal as it violated the provisions of the AP Reorganization Act 2014, and did not follow the recommendations of the expert committee,” Mr. Prasada Rao wrote.
He further stated that the decision of Amaravati was not notified by any official gazette or by any Government Order. “It is unfortunate that constitutional functions are not conducted from ‘Common Capital Hyderabad’ and are run from a place which does not have legal sanctity. The expert committee in its report clearly stated that “the committee does not consider a single large capital city as a feasible option available to AP.”
Didn’t co-operate with Sivaramakrishnan Committee
Further quoting the Sivaramakrishnan Committee report Mr. Prasada Rao said: “It is clearly stated that the GoAP has already suggested that the new State capital should be in Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangalagiri (VGTM) region and that the GoAP has not waited for the study by the ‘Expert Committee’. Further, it is clearly stated that GoAP did not co-operate with the Committee, and it seriously recommended against the location of capital in VGTM region, and recommended that GoAP should revisit its decision as it would affect the best available agriculture lands in the country, as it contributes more than one per cent of rice production of the country.”
“The current government of AP, following the recommendation of the Expert Committee is seriously thinking about revisiting the decision and had appointed a High-Level Committee to study the reports of G.N. Rao Committee and Boston Consulting Group,” he said.
The government is considering to implement recommendations of distribution of various capital functions to all three regions of the State, he added.
