Andhra Pradesh’s capital woes appear to be far from over. Amaravati, the chief minister of N Chandrababu Naidu’s dream project, has been hitting one hurdle after another.
In a new twist, a former IAS officer and social activist EAS Sarma raised questions over the legal status of Amaravati as the new capital of AP.
“The state government must complete the legal process of obtaining approval from the Parliament and getting Presidential assent. Unless it is done, any expenditure on Amaravati and any administrative, financial and statutory measures taken in the name of that city as the State capital would be prima facie illegal,” the retired civil servant said in a letter to the Chief Secretary Neerabh Kumar Prasad.
Under Section 5 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, Hyderabad ceased to be the ‘common capital’ for the two sibling states of Telangana and AP as on June 2, 2024. It is now the capital of Telangana alone. In the absence of a formal notification on the location of the capital, Amaravati cannot be legally deemed to be the State’s capital, he pointed out.
After retiring as the Union Energy secretary, Sarma has been actively involved in causes ranging from environmental protection and governance reforms to human rights.
The former bureaucrat pointed out that as of now there has been no formal notification designating Amaravati as the capital of AP. “Hence, Amaravati cannot be legally considered the state capital now. The government must follow the proper process by passing a resolution in the state assembly choosing Amaravati as the capital and then seek a notification from the Union Home Ministry to this effect,” Sarma said.
In turn, the Centre must notify Amaravati as the state capital after following necessary legal processes including getting the Parliament’s approval and securing Presidential assent, he said.
He accused Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu of unilaterally selecting Amaravati as the capital city and investing heavily without proper notification under the act.
The retired IAS officer was also unsparing in his criticism of the previous YSR Congress government, headed by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, for abandoning the Amaravati project and deciding to locate the capital in Visakhapatnam without following the due legal process.
“Now, with the YSRCP voted out of power, the new government led by TDP has reversed its predecessor’s decision, unilaterally reinstated the idea of Amaravati as capital and begun making financial and other commitments without any legal basis,” Sarma said in his letter.
His legal objections came days after the World Bank agreed to provide a loan of Rs 15,000 crore for the development of Amaravati city. The multilateral lending agency sent a letter to the Union finance ministry.
The discussions on the modalities of lending are already underway between the officials of the AP Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) and the World Bank representatives and the agreement is expected to be signed by November 15.
The development follows a series of visits by the World Bank team to Amaravati's capital region in the last two months. They inspected the ongoing clearance of jungle that came up in the region and abandoned buildings and other infrastructure works in the last five years, besides interacting with the farmers.
Once the agreement is signed, the APCRDA is expected to get the first tranche of a loan of Rs 3,750 crore in November, as per the proposals submitted by the APCRDA. The remaining tranches would be released before the closure of the financial year, the officials said.
The World Bank loan would be utilised for the development of infrastructure, development of layouts of residential and commercial plots allotted to farmers who gave away their lands for the capital under the land pooling system, construction of the Amaravati government complex, including the state assembly, high court, secretariat towers and various departmental buildings.
“The total cost of these works was estimated at Rs 49,000 crore of which Rs 15,000 crore is being obtained as a soft loan from the World Bank,” the official sources said, adding that there would be a moratorium of 15 years on repayment of the loan, which would be borne by the centre and the state in the ratio of 90:10.
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