State Government committed to decentralisation of capital: AP Governor

Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan in his address to the legislative assembly and legislative council on Tuesday said that the state government is committed to the decentralisation of the AP capital. This would ensure equal development in Andhra Pradesh, said the Governor speaking in the Assembly session via video conference. The Andhra Pradesh Governor announced that the legal process in setting up of the three capitals is underway. Stating that the state government has fulfilled forty promises that didn’t originally feature in the party manifesto, Governor Harichandan said that the government will develop executive capital at Visakhapatnam, legislative capital at Amaravati and judicial capital at Kurnool. A fund of Rs. 500 crore was allocated to developing infrastructure in Vizag for the same.

In his address, the Governor elaborated on Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s vision for the state. He said that Mr Reddy called for the AP capital decentralisation in order to support equal development in all regions, instead of focussing on one region only. With the AP cabinet and state legislature already approving the Decentralisation and Equal Development of All Regions Bill, 2020 the state secretariat will be set up at Visakhapatnam and High Court, at Kurnool.

In his previous addresses, Chief Minister YS Jagan said that developing the state’s capital from scratch in Amaravati would prove expensive to the state. With the existent financial conditions, it would be more feasible to choose Vizag as the capital, the CM had said. The GN Rao Committee and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) constituted to consult the AP government on the same were affirmative of the idea in the past. Extensive research done by the committees deemed that the Amaravati Project would require an additional investment. It was stated that Vizag would thereby be an ideal choice for the state’s executive capital while developing Amaravati as a hub for education, food, fisheries, and hi-tech organic agriculture.