Visakhapatnam to be Andhra Pradesh’s new capital, says CM Jagan Mohan Reddy

In 2019, Reddy first proposed the idea of “decenstralised development” and advocated for the establishment of three capitals in the state. He said that Amaravati — which previous CM N Chandrababu Naidu started to develop as the state capital — would be the Legislative capital, while Visakhapatnam would be the Executive Capital, and Kurnool the Judicial Capital. He emphasised the same over the years. The government also passed the Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act in 2020 on the matter but repealed it in November 2021.

Along with YSR Congress party (YRSCP) ministers, the CM has held public meetings and rallies to drum up support for the decentralisation plan. On March 3, 2022, the Andhra Pradesh High Court directed the state government to develop the proposed capital Amaravati as envisaged under the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) Act of the previous Telugu Desam Party government, and set a deadline of six months to develop the capital city.

It also spoke of the farmers who gave up land for the development of the capital city in Amravati and organised themselves under the banner of the Rajdhani Rythu Parirakshana Samithi and filed petitions in the High Court challenging the state government’s decision.

The High Court said the government should also develop the plots allocated to farmers in lieu of the agricultural land they gave up, and hand it back in three months, and that it must develop infrastructure facilities around the developed plots. The High Court order said other plans too, such as the development of nine theme cities– knowledge city, health city, electronics city, tourism city, justice city, media city, sports city, finance city, and government city of Amaravati – as envisaged under the CRDA should be carried through.

The Jagan Mohan Reddy, government, however, went on to challenge the High Court’s order in the Supreme Court in September last year.

On November 28, 2022, the SC stayed directions of the High Court till January 31, 2023, and sought responses from the Centre, the Andhra Pradesh government, and the Amravati Rajdhani Rythu Parirakshanan Samiti. At the time, Chief Justice U U Lalit recused himself from the case as he had given his opinion on the issue of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2013 before the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, was passed.

The matter was listed in the SC Tuesday but a hearing did not take place. YSRCP MP V Vijay Sai Reddy said that a fresh date will be issued.