Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy while speaking in the state Assembly on Tuesday, has hinted that the state could have three capitals on the lines of the Republic of South Africa.
His intervention came after a heated debate in the Assembly involving the construction of a new capital city for the state.
Advocating a decentralized approach and even development of the state, he said: “We can think in terms of having three capitals- legislative, executive and judicial. Visakapatnam, which has infrastructure, can be considered for being the executive capital without much capital, while Amaravati can be retained as the legislative capital and Kurnool can be considered as the judiciary capital. A reputed consultancy firm will give its report and a decision will be taken after discussing the details and logistics.”
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He also accused the previous government of coming up with a grandiose plan of developing 53,000 acres at a whopping cost of Rs 1.09 lakh crores which was riddled with corruption, nepotism and criminal breach of trust.
Listing out his priorities, he added that providing adequate drinking water, irrigation facilities and implementing welfare schemes will be the work of this government. In this regard, he added, “We need Rs 60,000 crores to provide water to the Rayalseema region, Rs 16,000 crores for taking Polavaram water to north Andhra and Rs 40,000 crores for the drinking water grid. Since our priorities are so different and aimed at welfare, we have to consider if spending Rs 1.09 lakh crores is necessary for capital formation”.
South Africa has three different capitals. Pretoria (administrative capital), Cape Town (legislative capital) and Blomemfontein (judicial capital).
The Andhra Pradesh (Reorganization) Act, 2014 provided for the city of Hyderabad to be the joint capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana. However, from 2024, it is expected that Andhra Pradesh will have its own capital. The construction of this capital city has been mired in various controversies.