In Thullur in Guntur district of coastal Andhra Pradesh (A.P.), people still wince when they remember the sound of armed police personnel marching through the narrow lanes of the village about four years ago.
Aluri Pavani, a farmer in her 50s, remembers the time vividly. In early 2015, she had given 2.75 acres of land to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government, headed by Chandrababu Naidu, which had announced its plan to build a new capital, Amaravati, for A.P.
The previous year, the combined State of A.P. had been bifurcated into two, A.P. and Telangana, and Hyderabad was stipulated to be the joint capital for 10 years. From 2024, according to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, A.P. would have its own capital. Amaravati, an important centre of Hinduism and Buddhism in India, was Naidu’s dream project. He said in 2015 that he envisioned a “smart, green, and sustainable city” that would be a “symbol of pride for the people of Andhra Pradesh and India”.
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The project went on smoothly until early 2019. However, in May that year, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) assumed power and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy proposed three capitals instead — Visakhapatnam as the executive capital, Amaravati as the administrative capital, and Kurnool as the judicial capital.
The 28,736 farmers who had parted with a combined 33,000 acres of land, as part of a Land Pooling Scheme in which they would be given a developed plot of land in return, for the capital of Amaravati were furious.
“Trying to stage protests on the streets became the ‘new normal’ for us,” recalls Pavani. The police imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which prohibits the assembly of four or more people in an area. “They made our lives miserable,” she continues. “We had to confront the police all the time. The situation was so bad that we had to show our Aadhaar cards to step out of our homes.”
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A. Rajani, a farmer from Thullur, says, “Not a single day would pass without the police cracking down on farmers who spearheaded the agitation that went on for more than 1,600 days.”
The people of Thullur, one of the 29 villages that constitute the capital region of the State, are today hopeful because Naidu has come back to power, but the cases booked against some of them for violating the police curbs have not yet been closed, they say.
Naidu’s dream capital
A.P. has been grappling with the question of a capital ever since bifurcation. In 2014, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs set up the Sivaramakrishnan Committee to study possibilities for a new capital for the State. The Committee said there was no need for a “single super capital city” and favoured decentralisation. It opposed a greenfield capital as it believed that the costs of building it were too high. However, the Committee added that if the government still wished to construct a greenfield capital, it should search for locations where large parcels of government land were available.
Notwithstanding the recommendations of the Committee, in September 2014, Naidu finalised Amaravati as the capital on the basis of recommendations of a panel headed by the Minister for Municipal Administration, P. Narayana. The next year, on October 22, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for Amaravati at Uddandarayunipalem village in Thullur Mandal.
The foundation for Amaravati was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2015. | Photo Credit: G.N. Rao
A petition questioned the role of the Centre in the State’s capital decision. The Supreme Court said the setting up of the capital city was within the State government’s discretionary powers. Naidu was thrilled. He involved the Governments of Singapore and Japan and renowned architects such as Foster + Partners to lend their expertise in designing and building the capital city, which was to be spread over 217 sq km and span the erstwhile Guntur and Krishna districts.
“The TDP government had invited tenders worth ₹48,000 crore for Phase-I of the capital city project and even made payments amounting to nearly ₹9,000 crore for works that had been completed,” recalls Narayana.
Several villas and high-rise buildings were constructed to house judges, bureaucrats, elected representatives of the State, and gazetted and non-gazetted officers in Amaravati. An interim government complex came up at Velagapudi, about 20 kilometres from Vijayawada.
A ghost city
However, in 2019, all this came to a grinding halt when the YSCRP government rode to power. Reddy believed in decentralisation. His government passed the Andhra Pradesh Capital Development Authority Repeal Act, 2020. Promptly, all the new buildings constructed by the previous TDP government were abandoned except the interim government complex. Amaravati turned into a ghost city overnight. Until June this year, pipes, cables, and other construction material could be seen everywhere, gathering dust. Roads were lined with weeds. Dense vegetation had grown around high-rise buildings.
Many people in the region say they lost a great deal due to the agony of the changing circumstances. P. Bharat, a farmer who gave 2.5 acres of land for the capital to the TDP government, alleges that his wife, a computer operator working on contract in the Thullur Mandal Revenue Office, lost her job because of the YSRCP. “Our child had dressed up as Lord Venkateswara during the protests against the capital shift. They fired her on finding that out,” he says.
Hundreds of farmers describe January 10, 2020, as “an unforgettable day”. This was when they embarked on a journey to the Kanaka Durga temple in Vijayawada on foot to pray that Amaravati be retained as the capital of Andhra Pradesh and were stopped by the police. “Several women were injured in the clashes,” recalls Gottipati Lakshmi, a farmer who was part of the protest.
Besides affecting the people, the A.P. Capital Development Authority Repeal Act, 2020, and the A.P. Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act, 2020, which were intended to split the capital into three parts, sparked a major legal battle.
The Rajadhani Rythu Parirakshana Samithi, an association of aggrieved farmers from the capital villages, along with other entities challenged the YSRCP government’s decision in court soon after Reddy proposed the idea of three capitals.
On March 3, 2022, the YSRCP government was forced to beat a hasty retreat after the High Court ruled that the government had no legislative competence to shift or even split the capital. The Court issued an order saying the government should develop Amaravati as the capital within six months.
However, during its hearing of a Special Leave Petition filed by the YSRCP government against the High Court order dated March 3, 2022, the Supreme Court observed that the High Court was “not a town planner or engineer” to say that Amaravati should be developed in a particular time frame. The Special Leave Petition is pending final adjudication by the apex court.
All eyes on Visakhapatnam
Meanwhile, with Reddy announcing Visakhapatnam as the executive capital, hectic political activity and infrastructure development began in the coastal city in 2019. While TDP and Jana Sena Party (JSP) leaders from other parts of the State questioned his decision, local TDP and JSP leaders welcomed it given the public sentiment in Visakhapatnam.
There were several debates over where the executive capital should be located. After a series of inspections, the YSRCP zeroed in on the Bheemunipatnam region, located in south Visakhapatnam district, which is also considered the gateway to Visakhapatnam.
The decision led to an increase in land prices. Construction activity boomed in many parts of the city, especially Hanumanthuwaka, Arilova, Marikavalasa, Madhurawada, Kommadi, PM Palem, and Rushikonda.
“People wanted to purchase flats or sites when the capital announcement was made, assuming that the prices would see a drastic increase when the capital work began,” says Koteswara Rao, a realtor from the city.
The government formed a committee to select suitable places for the offices of various departments, head offices, and the camp office of the Chief Minister. It recommended using existing structures as temporary offices. Some engineering colleges were also proposed to be used as government buildings.
The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation and Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority developed roads in the wards of the Bheemunipatnam Assembly Constituency, which had been neglected for years.
Residents say there were regular inspections by government officials, YSRCP ministers, and MLAs in the region. “They used to check the development of roads and the feasibility of constructing some government blocks in the surrounding areas of Rushikonda and Bheemunipatnam,” says one resident. The YSRCP government reportedly planned to make the existing IT Towers and Special Economic Zone region temporary office blocks.
“The present Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation office was to be used as a Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department office. In contrast, a new office for the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation was being allotted at the outskirts,” says a senior roads and buildings department official.
Government officials and ministers began looking for apartments in Madhurawada and Yendada, which are located close to Bheemunipatnam. The YSRCP government organised several meetings, including an Investors Summit, to attract investments to Visakhapatnam.
In 2021, a major controversy erupted when the YSRCP government demolished the government-owned Haritha Resorts on Rushikonda Hill in Bheemunipatnam Assembly Constituency, claiming that the space would be developed as a five-star resort for tourism. The TDP, JSP, and BJP alleged that the YSRCP government was constructing the Chief Minister’s residence by destroying a hill.
A view of the Haritha Resorts on Rushikonda Hill in Bheemunipatnam Assembly constituency. | Photo Credit: V. RAJU
Last October, a committee appointed by the YSRCP government said that the construction on Rushikonda would be suitable for the Chief Minister’s camp office. When the YSRCP lost the elections in June this year, TDP and JSP leaders barged into the site and alleged that the YSRCP government was constructing the Chief Minister’s residence-cum-camp office at a staggering ₹500 crore.
Optimism once again
Now, with the TDP back in power, Amaravati has come alive again. The sounds of more than 100 earth-movers clearing the jungles and doing civil repair work have broken the eerie calm that has prevailed for the last five years. Farmers have gone by foot to Tirumala to express gratitude to Lord Venkateswara for TDP’s return to power.
The restoration work of Amaravati capital is going on at a fast pace. | Photo Credit: G.N. Rao
Naidu says he intends to rebuild the capital as soon as possible on the basis of the old master plan. “At a high-level review meeting, the government will arrive at the estimated cost of reconstruction,” says Narayana.
Gadde Tirupati Rao, managing trustee of Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi, a group of farmers affected by the proposed capital shift, points out that the lands were given not to Naidu, but to the government. “We never imagined that Reddy would try and shift the capital. Regardless of who the Chief Minister is, they should ensure continuity of governance,” he says.
The fact that the original Capital Region Development Authority Act of 2014 was restored by the YSRCP government as a consequence of the High Court order has offered no solace to farmers as the dispute has still not been solved in the Supreme Court.
With the YSRCP reduced to just 11 MLAs in the 175-member Legislative Assembly, Naidu is likely to face little resistance to his ambitious plan. In the 2024 Assembly elections, the YSRCP was defeated in both the Mangalagiri and Tadikonda Assembly constituencies in which Amaravati falls. It also did not win a single seat in the three urban constituencies of Visakhapatnam, and Kurnool.
One major challenge Naidu faces is the financial crunch in the State. However, the Centre may come to his aid as it is obliged under the A.P. Reorganisation Act to extend financial support for capital development.
Resentment in Kurnool
While Amaravati has begun to spring back to life, there is disappointment in Kurnool, which will not become the judicial capital in the changed circumstances.
Lawyers say Naidu should fulfil his election promise of creating a High Court Bench in Kurnool, now that their hopes of having the principal seat of the High Court in Kurnool are dashed given the government’s plan of establishing a single capital city, Amaravati. The Reddy government had established “quasi-judicial institutions” such as Lokayukta and Human Rights Commission in Kurnool as a prelude to its much-publicised slogan of making Kurnool the judicial capital. The lawyers hope that the two institutions will be allowed to continue in Kurnool. “This is all we ask now,” they say.
Inputs from Harish Gilai in Visakhapatnam and K. Uma Shankar in Kurnool
Published - June 29, 2024 03:27 am IST
