Andhra free to decide on its capital: Centre
HYDERABAD: The Centre on Tuesday said it is the prerogative of the state to decide the location of its capital city, indicating that it cannot interfere in the decision of the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh to shift the administrative capital of the state from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
“It is for each state to decide its capital within its territory,” Union minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai said, in a written reply to a question raised by Jayadev Galla, Telugu Desam Party lawmaker, during question hour in Lok Sabha. The MP asked whether the Centre took note of the recent decision taken by the Andhra Pradesh chief minister to set up three capitals; and urged it to advise the state to not resort to such decisions, which, he said, would not only vitiate the investment climate but be a great loss to thousands of farmers who gave their land for construction of new capital, Amaravati.
In his written reply, the minister said the state notified Amaravati as its capital city through a government order dated April 23, 2015. “Recently, media reports have appeared indicating the State Government’s decision to create three capitals for the State of Andhra Pradesh. It is for each State to decide its capital within its territory,” he replied.
Senior YSRC leader and minister for municipal administration and urban development Botsa Satyanaryana welcomed the statement, saying: “We have been telling right from the beginning that the location of the capital city is purely a state subject and the Centre has no role whatsoever in this regard. This has been endorsed by the Centre today.”
Former TDP legislator and party spokesman Bonda Umamaheshwar Rao said: “It is true that the Centre had no role in deciding the capital city of a state. But it also acknowledged the fact that Andhra had already notified Amaravati as the capital city... Now, the Jagan government is creating three capitals on the pretext that there is no gazette notification of Amaravati.”