All parties support Amaravati, says Naidu

The former chief minister and TDP national president, N Chandrababu Naidu, on Thursday made it clear that all the political parties, including the BJP and the Congress, are extending their support to Amaravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh.

Addressing a huge gathering after releasing the book ‘Amaravathi, the Disputes and the Facts’, Chandrababu Naidu said that no person on this earth is permanent. “But the good deeds that we perform will be remembered by the people and will remain permanently in their minds,” he observed.

The rulers always should think whether the works undertaken by them are in any way useful to the people of the State, he added. The leaders should have vision to develop the State but not to get political mileage, he noted.

The successive governments should continue the developmental works undertaken by the previous regimes but should not think of causing damage to the State. “Even the late chief minister, YS Rajasekhar Reddy, never thought of discontinuing the works I have launched. The Cyberabad, the Shamshabad airport and the Outer Ring Road in Hyderabad are classic examples of this,” Chandrababu Naidu maintained.

Because of their capital cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai, the revenue of the respective States have gone up. This is the basic reason as to why the concept of Amaravati has been conceived with the full cooperation from the local farmers, he noted.

The former chief minister felt that development and elections are not inter-linked. The TDP lost the Khairabad Assembly seat in Hyderabad city and lost even Tatikonda Assembly segment despite developing the respective areas, Mr Naidu pointed out.

Since Amaravathi is located centrally to the whole State, the TDP thought of developing this area as the capital city. “It is equaidistant from both Ananthapur and Srikakulam, he added.

“When I proposed that even the children of daily wage earners too should work as software engineers, a section of people ridiculed me. But it is a reality now,” the former chief minister said. Indians are the highest earners in any country because of that particular vision and Telugus are 30 per cent among them, Chandrababu Naidu noted.

Amaravathi has been developed as a self-financing project and without spending even a single rupee from the Government side, he observed and is of a strong opinion that people from Andhra Pradesh need a capital like Amaravathi.