Majority voted for Vijayawada: N. Chandrababu Naidu
Balanced development can be best served by locating the capital at a central place around Vijayawada
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-09-05 02:07 GMT
Hyderabad:Announcing that the capital of Andhra Pradesh would be in the Vijayawada region, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said that he believed the Centre would lend its full-fledged support in terms of policy, finance and administration to build a model state.
On the popular demand from legislators and public to name the capital after Telugu Desam founder-president and former Chief Minister, the Late N.T. Rama Rao, Mr Naidu said that the government would examine it.
“This decision of the Cabinet is a reflection of the popular sentiment, and is affirmed by views expressed in the representations received by the Sivaramakrishnan Committee,” he said. Nearly 50 per cent of the representations received by the Sivaramakrishnan Committee had favoured the Vijayawada-Guntur region as the best location.
Interests of the entire state and its balanced development can be best served by locating the capital at a central place around Vijayawada, Mr Naidu said in the Assembly. This would enable equal access to people from all regions, he added amidst noisy protests from YSRC members who wanted a discussion on the issue before the announcement.
The CM said that of the 4,728 people surveyed by the Committee, as many as 2,191 had been in favour of Vijayawada-Guntur as the capital city, which was 47 per cent. Only 10.7 per cent had said Visakhapatnam and 7.6 per cent had wanted Kurnool as the capital.
On factors like risk mitigation, land and water availability and connectivity, Vijayawada had scored 7.23 per cent, followed by Greater Visakhapatnam at 4.67 per cent, Nellore 3.95 per cent, Kakinada 2.95 per cent, Ongole 0.16 per cent, Eluru 1.03 per cent and Kadapa 1.55 per cent.
Concentrate on development not YSRC, Naidu asks TD men:
AP CM N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday said that the YSRC had failed in the Budget Session. During the TD Legislature party meeting in the Assembly committee hall, Mr Naidu, said that it would be better to concentrate on development than criticising the YSRC and giving importance to the party.
He, however, expressed happiness with the performance of the TD and with the government for announcing the location of the state capital. He said that the situation was such that the main Opposition party also had to accept the decision of the state government.
When TD MLAs asked the CM to continue with the Assembly constituency’s development fund, he said that the government’s first priorities were to implement the waiver of farm loans and DWACRA loans.