Respecting "popular sentiment", Andhra Pradesh Government today selected the historic city of Vijayawada as the state's new capital post bifurcation even as it unveiled grandiose plans for decentralised and comprehensive development of all regions.
The TDP-led government promised to build a "world-class" capital city involving the people so that it could be "proudly" called the "people's capital".
Vijayawada city, as such, will not be the capital but the area around will be developed into the new seat of power of the residuary state.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who made an announcement in the Assembly on the new capital, said, "The Cabinet met on September 1 and resolved to locate the capital city in a central place of the state, around Vijayawada, and go for decentralised development of the state with three mega cities and 14 smart cities. It is proposed to go for land pooling system to be worked out by a Cabinet sub-committee."
The government, in the process, trashed the report of the five-member expert committee headed by former Urban Development Secretary K Sivaramakrishnan that did not quite favour Vijayawada region for the capital.
The panel, appointed by the Centre to suggest alternatives for the capital of the truncated state which lost Hyderabad to recently-created Telangana state, submitted its report to the Union Home Ministry late last month.
"This decision of the state Cabinet is a reflection of the popular sentiment, and is affirmed by views expressed in representations received by the Sivaramakrishnan Committee. Nearly 50 per cent of the representations received by the committee favoured Vijayawada-Guntur region as the best location for the capital area," Naidu added.
The government, as resolved by the Cabinet, was of the opinion that interests of the entire state and its balanced development could be best served by locating the capital city at a central place around Vijayawada. This would enable equal access to people from all regions, the Chief Minister noted.
Leader of Opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy welcomed the decision and said his party would offer constructive suggestions on development of the new capital. But the YSR Congress chief expressed reservations over the proposed land pooling, saying it would encourage real-estate operators.
"Ideally, 30,000 acres of land is required for the capital. It will be advantageous if it is government land."
Naidu recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during election campaign in May, promised to help AP build a world-class capital that stood better than New Delhi.
