Jagan firm on not developing Amaravati as capital!

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has not changed his plans on three capitals. He is not ready to develop Amaravati as the capital of the state even though the high court had given a direction.

It was more than three months that the high court had directed the state to develop Amaravati layouts and hand over the plots to the farmers in return to their lands given in land pooling scheme. The state government had filed an affidavit in the court seeking more time to develop the layouts as provision of infrastructure would take a lot of time.

In tune with the affidavit, the state government had once again filed a second affidavit in the court stating that it would require at least five years to provide basic infrastructure in Amaravati. The affidavit says that the basic infrastructure would mean provision of roads, drains, drinking water, electricity and greenery.

Besides this, the officials also said that some of the lands given by the farmers to the government in pooling are in legal disputes over boundaries and clear titles. The officials say that in some cases, the farmers have not yet registered their lands with the government.

Similarly, several farmers have also not come forward to register the plots offered by the government in return to their lands. Though the officials have sent letters to the farmers asking them to register their plots, they were not coming forward, the government said in the fresh affidavit.

Keeping all these factors into consideration, the state government had requested the high court to change the time limit given to the government for the development of Amaravati as capital city. It wanted the court to give at least five years to complete the process.

All this would mean that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government is unwilling to develop Amaravati as capital and is firm on its three capitals proposal. The chief minister is bent on shifting to Visakhapatnam and making it the capital of the state.