Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has made it clear that no injustice will be done to any farmer who has given land for the capital in Amaravati and that the capital will be built as a world-class city.
“The Telugu Desam government will fashion Amaravati as a world-class capital as per its master plan. Some 53,748 acres of land are available for the capital, of which 8,278 acres have been kept aside for monetisation,” he said while releasing a white paper on Amaravati Capital Lands on Wednesday.
Making it clear that there was no question of going back on Amaravati’s status as the state capital, Naidu asserted, "We will relaunch the works for the capital from where they were halted and will resolve all the legal tangles."
The Chief Minister declared, “Amaravati is a people's capital, which will be a centre for creating wealth, employment and poverty alleviation.” He said Jagan Mohan Reddy, who ruled the state for five years, had betrayed the Telugu community by destroying Amaravati.
“Had the progress of Amaravati been continued in the last five years, it would by now have become another Hyderabad. Our state capital will be rebuilt. We will march forward with central assistance,” the CM stated.
He felt that the state has sufficient assets and human resources and investors from across the globe were ready to invest in AP.
Recalling how the foundation stone was laid for Amaravati, the Chief Minister said the spot was selected as it was exactly in the middle of the whole state, with 12 Lok Sabha constituencies on either side.
A majority of the people had suggested to the Sivaramakrishnan Committee that the capital should be between Krishna and Guntur districts, he noted.
"Despite having a Rs 15,000 crore deficit budget, I want to build Amaravati with all my experience in building Cyberabad. Hyderabad did not have even sufficient water and power supply once, but over a period of time all the issues were resolved," Naidu said.
The CM said that initially, he wondered whether land-pooling was possible. But 34,400 farmers came forward voluntarily to give the land for the Amaravati capital plan, he said.
The Centre, he said, has agreed to extend a Rs 2,500 crore financial aid for building Amaravati. Of this amount, a sum of Rs 1,500 crore was already released. Jagan Mohan Reddy too, in his capacity as the then Leader of the Opposition 10 years ago, had admitted on the floor of the Assembly that the capital should be in the middle of the state. But, we all know how he has taken a 'U' turn later and what kind of decisions he took," Naidu said.
