Andhra Pradesh restarts efforts to develop Amaravati

VIJAYAWADA: The YSRC government resumed its efforts to handle the Amaravati issue by proposing the area’s development as a municipality with inclusion of 22 villages in it.

The process of holding the Grama Sabhas to collect public opinion on creation of Amaravati Municipality starts on Monday. YSR Congress also plans to take forward the Jagan government's plan to develop all regions of AP through decentralisation.

Earlier, the government formed the Mangalagiri-Tadepalli Municipal Corporation (MTMC) and the proposal worked well. The people of the two towns agreed to the proposal. On similar lines, the chief minister had in January this year proposed to establish Amaravati Municipal Corporation with 19 villages of Amaravati, for which Grama Sabhas were held the same month to get the consent of the villagers.

The majority of the villages opposed the proposal and instead sought inclusion of all 29 villages in the AMC. Hence the government halted the proposal.

As many as 34,000 farmers had offered their lands for Amaravati under the Land Pooling Scheme and a majority of them are seeking Amaravati as the only Capital of AP. The moved the high court and got orders to develop Amaravati as per the previous agreements and master plan.  

In the past few months, after the HC verdict, the government restarted development works in Amaravati. As the earlier efforts of establishing AMC proved futile, the government now decided to establish Amaravati Municipality with 22 villages in which 19 villages belong to Thullur Mandal and rest three to Mangalagiri mandal.

The areas of Abbarajupalem, Dondapadu, Mandadam, Nekkallu, Nelapadu, Sakhamuru, Thullur, Pedaparimi, Vaddamanu, Harichandrapuram, Uddandarayunnipalem, Velagapudi, Lingayapalem, Ananthavaram, Rayapudi, Malkapuram, Ainavolu, Borupalem and Venkatapalem of Thullur Mandal are proposed for inclusion in the Amaravati Municipality. Further, Kuragallu, Neerukonda and Krishnayapalem of Mangalagiri would be included in the Amaravati Municipality.

The Grama Sabhas will start from today (Monday) under which meetings will be held in Lingayapalem, Uddandarayunipalem and Harichandrapuram. The meeting will be continued through other villages every day till September 17.

The pro-Amaravati farmers are alleging that the government is conspiring to divide Amaravati farmers by establishing a new municipality with only 22 villages out of 29 villages. They deplored that as the Amaravati farmers will be in a Maha Padayatra, the government is trying to get consent of those who are supporting the government. They stressed that they will not flinch from their fight of Amaravati as the only Capital of AP and would go for legal options against the conspiracy.

Meanwhile, the YSRC leaders say the Chandrababu government did not try to develop Amaravati villages and notify Amaravati as state capital. “The  government earlier started efforts to develop Amaravati into a municipal corporation but in vain and hence started a fresh effort to develop it now as a municipality with 22 villages. This is a good move as Amaravati will get a geographical shape as a legislative capital city from a grouping of 29 villages,” they said.

Ministers Botsa Satyanarayana and others said the YSRC is not against Amaravati and the government will develop it as the legislative capital. The restarting of the halted works and further efforts to give a geographical shape to a city under Amaravati Municipality plan showed the government’s  dedication to the cause of developing Amaravati, he said, and hoped to get consent of the people during present round of Grama Sabhas.