Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said on Thursday that his government would soon publish a White Paper highlighting the status of the capital city Amaravati after the previous YSRCP government YS Jagan Mohan Reddy abandoned the project.
The under-construction buildings of the proposed state capital have been damaged during the past five years needing repairs.
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Ten years after the bifurcation of the state, AP is without a capital city, rued Naidu, adding that the coffers of the state government are empty at a time when both Polavaram and Amaravati have to be completed.
After five long years, Naidu on Thursday visited Amaravati, which he had seeded as AP’s greenfield capital during his previous tenure.
Naidu began his inspection of Amaravati with a visit to the Praja Vedika which had been demolished by the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy regime alleging Illegal construction.
His next stop was Uddandarayunipalem where Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for Amaravati on Dussehra in 2015. Nine years later, an emotional Naidu was on his knees in front of the foundation stone where soil from all over the state had been brought, in a gesture of Pranaam.
He also inspected the incomplete projects including the seed access roads and apartments for bureaucrats and judges. Most of the areas of Amaravati were covered in weeds and thorny bushes after five years of neglect by the previous government.
Later, Naidu slammed YS Jagan Mohan Reddy saying, “The previous government neglected and abandoned Amaravati and its development. An unfit individual headed the state for the past five years. Polavaram and Amaravati are not personal projects of any political party, these are for the state’s benefit.”
He said the farmers of Amaravati agitated for 1,630 days, which is numerologically equivalent to 11, the number of seats the YSRCP won in this election.
Soliciting suggestions from the people on the way forward, Naidu said, “The damage is visible. The coffers are empty while there is Polavaram to be built. The government will come up with an action plan for Amaravati after assessing the damages.”
Pointing out that Amaravati was a self-financing project that did not require the government to spend its own funds he blamed Reddy for wreaking havoc on the greenfield project. He said only God had saved the capital city from Reddy’s ire.
A large number of farmers, who had given up their land for the capital and TDP activists, had gathered to welcome the chief minister.
