The Andhra Pradesh government had started the groundwork for creation of Amaravati Municipal Corporation with 29 villages, which were earlier part of the Amaravati capital city plan by the previous TDP government.
This is the second attempt by the present government to create a municipal corporation here giving urban recognition to these villages. The villages are under the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department. The YSR Congress government wanted to bring them under the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department, by creating a municipal corporation with 22 villages.
The government also conducted grama sabhas to elicit the views of the people from these villages. However, the villages passed resolutions in favour of creation of a municipal corporation with all 29 villages and opposed withdrawal of seven villages from the list.
The state government had created a new municipal corporation by merging both Tadepalli and Mangalagiri municipalities last year. The government also took four villages from the 29 capital villages list and included them in the Tadepalli-Mangalagiri Municipal Corporation.
However, the farmers of Amaravati, who have been holding protests for the past 750 days have opposed the government move to create a municipal corporation with only 22 villages against 29 villages identified earlier as the capital villages.
Though there are resolutions from all these villages on the issue, the state government had once again directed the Guntur district collector to hold grama sabhas and collect public opinion on the creation of Amaravati Municipal Corporation.
It is to be seen how the Amaravati farmers would react to the attempt by the government for the second time in the last two years.
